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Laurence  Gronlund's  Works. 


THE  CO-OPERATIVE  COMMONWEALTH. 
An   Exposition   of   Socialism.     Clotti, 
$1.0a     Paper $.50 

OUR  DESTINY. 

The  Influence  of  Socialism  on  Morals 
and  Religion.    Cloth,  $1.00.    Paper    .  $.50 

C  A  IRA  I 

Danton    in    the    French    Revolution. 
Cloth,  $1.00.    Paper $.50 

Lee  AND  Shepard  -  Publishers 
Boston. 


gA   IRA! 


OR 


DANTON  IN  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION 

BY 

LAURENCE  GRONLUND,  A.M. 

AUTHOR   OF   "the   CO-OPERATIVE   COMMONWEALTH." 


"  The  Revohdion  —  call  it  good  or  bad 
As  you  yearn  towards  the  Future  or  the  Past." 

Victor  Hugo. 


BOSTON 
LEE    AND     SHEPARD,    PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1887, 
By  lee  and  SHEPARD. 


All  rights  reserved. 


DEDICATED 


Co  the  Earnest  Jflinority 


WHO  ARE  WAITING  AND  WORKING   FOR 


QEfje  'Htia  Social  ©rber. 


CONTENTS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

PAGR 

A  Key  to  the  French  Revolution i 


CHAPTER  I. 

The  Rising  Generation 7 

Liberty  and  Law.  —  The  Drama  of  History.  —  The  "Sa- 
cred Torch"  passes  from  England  to  France.  —  The 
Revolution  made  by  Books.  —  Danton's  Youth.  —  June 
17.  —  "Ca  iraI" 

CHAPTER   II. 

The  Middle-class  Regime 37 

The  Counter-Revolution. —  August  4.  —  The  Constitu- 
tion OF  '91.  —  Danton  the  First  Republican. — The 
Doings  of  the  French  Bourgeoisie. 

CHAPTER  IIL 

The  Counter-Revolution  Crushed 70 

Conspiracy.  —  August  10.  —  Invasion.  —  September  Mas- 
sacres.—War  of  Propaganda. —  Louis'.  Head  "a  Gage 
OF  Battle." 

CHAPTER  IV. 

Energy  of  the  Year  i loi 

Revolutionary  Tribunal.  —  Committee  of  Public  Wel- 
fare. —  May  31.  —  Danton  as  Statesman.  —  Absolute 
Government.  —  Levy  en  Masse. —  Danton's  Resignation. 
—  La  Carmagnole. 


vi  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 

PAGE 

Fraternity  of  the  Jacobins 140 

Constitution  of  '93.  —  The  Maximum.  —  A  Poor-Law. — 
Down  with  Speculators!  —  Education.  —  The  Civil 
Code. —  A  Great  Wrong. —  "  Private  Enterprise"  in- 
dispensable. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
Terror •  176 

HfeBERTisM.— Pity.  —  April  5.  —  Danton  disinterested. 
—  Dans  le  Neant,  "  Nothingness"  (?)  —  The  Incorrupti- 
ble.—" MonsieurI" 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

The  Present  Transition  State 213 

Plutocrats  again  in  Power. —  i8th  Brumaire.  —  "Thou 
hast  been  Weighed  and  found  Wanting."  —  Present 
Tendencies  of  Societies.  —  In  Proportion  as  the  Men- 
tal Preparation  is  Complete,  will  the  Coming  Revo- 
lution BE  Easy. —  "God  wills  it." 


INTRODUCTION. 


A  KEY  TO  THE  FRENCH  REVOLUTION. 

"  Tlie  Revohttioti  —  call  it  good  or  bad 
As  you  yearn  toward  the  Future  or  the  Past." 

—  Victor  Hugo. 

ALL  thoughtful  people  look  forward  to  great  changes  in 
the  near  future,  and  many  think  that  some  catastrophe 
like  that  of  the  French  Revolution  is  impending  in  all 
civilized  countries.  I  feel  confident  that  the  young,  who 
stand  on  the  threshold  of  these  events,  can  forestall  the 
threatened  catastrophe  by  assisting  in  the  birth  of  a  new 
social  order.  It  is,  therefore,  you,  young  men  and  women  ! 
whom  I  especially  hope  to  influence  in  these  pages ;  whom 
I  desire,  not  by  cleverness,  not  by  briUiancy,  but  by  intense 
earnestness,  to  inspire  with  a  new  sense  of  duty,  with  the 
conviction  of  a  call  to  interfere  actively  in  the  moulding  of 
events.  Such  is  the  intent  of  this  volume. 

This  work,  perhaps,  will  be  found,  also,  to  be  novel  in 
this :  that  it  presents  to  you  the  great  French  Revolution 
from  a  point  of  view  from  which  it  never  before  has  been 
surveyed  in  print ;  not  so  much  that  it  may  serve  as  an 
example  or  a  warning  (though  that  also),  but  that  it  may  be 
seen  to  have  been  a  preparation  for  the  work  which  should 
be  performed  by  you. 

All  historians,  m  the  English  language  at  least,  have 
presented  the  Revolution  as  a  panorama  of  kaleidoscopic 


INTRODUCTION. 


pictures,  and  thereby  made  it  simply  a  perplexing  and  puz- 
zling subject.  Such  pictures  are  altogether  unprofitable  to  us  in 
our  generation,  since  they  necessarily  leave  the  crisis  an  in- 
comprehensible, an  unexplained  phenomenon.  Even 
in  that  form  it  may  confidently  be  said  that  no  portion  of 
history  has  had  such  a  fascination  for  all  classes  of  readers 
as  the  short  period  of  French  annals  from  1 789  to  1 794 ; 
but  how  much  greater  would  the  interest  be,  especially 
when  its  centennial  comes  round,  and  the  centennial  of  that 
wonderful  year  1793,  if  we  could  once  understand  \\. ! 

However,  mere  history  or  simple  story-telling  cannot  pos- 
sibly explain  it :  historic  philosophy  is  indispensable  to  that. 

Great  Britain  possesses  an  historic  philosopher  of  the  first 
rank  in  John  Morley,  who  also  has  written  most  profoundly 
and  lucidly  about  the  French  Revolution,  and  impartially  as 
well.  But  even  he  has  not  at  all  explained  it ;  he  has  in  no 
sense  given  us  a  key  to  it.  At  the  beginning  of  his 

interesting  work,  Rousseau,  we  meet  with  these  words  con- 
cerning the  French  Revolution  :  "  That  revolutionary  drama, 
whose  fifth  act  is  still  dark  to  us  ;  "  and  nowhere  does  he 
pretend  to  lift  the  veil.  If,  then,  the  "  fifth  act "  is  hidden 
from  him  in  darkness,  if  he  has  no  idea  at  all  as  to  the  out- 
come, how  could  he  explain  it  ?  How  could  he  judge  of 
the  forces  at  work  during  the  crisis?  Some  hypothesis  or 
other  in  regard  to  the  future  must  be  the  key  we  are 
looking  for. 

It,  however,  is  a  great  thing  in  Morley,  that  he  sees 
something  is  yet  coming.  Other  writers,  even  great  ones, 
have  not  had  an  inkling  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  a 
"  fifth  act "  at  all.  There  is,  for  instance,  Edgar  Quinet, 
beyond  question  a  most  considerable  French  philosopher, 
whose  masterpiece  is  a  work  entitled  La  Revolution,  in 
which  he  considers  the  Revolution  as  an  episode  in  French 
history  of  ten  years'  duration  ;  as  a  kind  of  comet  that  sud- 


THE  POSITIVIST  HYPOTHESIS. 


denly  entered  the  path  of  history  in  i  789,  and  as  suddenly 
left  it  in  1 799,  and  which  might  have  procured  incidentally 
for  the  French  such  blessings  as  the  American  Revolution 
procured  for  us. 

But  there  is  a  sect  of  philosophers  who  have  gone  to 
work  in  the  right  way,  who  have  framed  an  hypothesis  of 
the  future,  and  attempted  to  explain  the  French  Revolution 
by  such  hypothesis  :  the  Positivists,  the  disciples  of  Auguste 
Comte.  The  French  representatives  of  that  school  —  M. 
Lafitte,  Dr.  Robinet,  and  Antonin  Dubost  in  his  Danton  and 
Contemporary  Politics  —  are  aware  of  a  "fifth  act."  They 
insist  that  the  conflict  of  forces  during  the  Revolution  and  in 
modern  society  will  result  in  a  civilization  where  the  whole 
political  and  industrial  power  of  the  community  will  be  lodged 
in  the  hands  of  great  chiefs  of  industry,  great  capitalists, 
who,  by  an  organized  public  opinion,  —  that  is,  by  a  spiritual 
authority  working  by  public  opinion,  —  will  be  compelled 
to  apply  their  power  and  wealth  to  social  uses,  and  thus 
finally  do  away  with  misery  and  pauperism. 

This  method  is  undoubtedly,  as  said,  the  only  right  one, 
and  a  profoundly  philosophical  one,  and  their  hypothesis  is 
a  definite  enough  conception  and  a  working  hypothesis.  But 
is  it  correct  ?  that  is  to  say,  is  it  at  all  likely  that  they  have 
guessed  right  as  to  the  future  social  order?  There  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  least  evidence  that  our  great  capitalists  are 
becoming  more  and  more  inclined  to  use  their  increasing 
power  for  the  social  good,  and,  moreover,  no  evidence  at 
all,  that  such  a  spiritual  authority  is  going  to  assert  itself;  in 
other  words,  that  any  new  edition  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy 
of  the  Middle  Ages  is  being  evolved  or  will  be  accepted. 

Nevertheless,  this  Positivist  hypothesis  has  been  very 
fruitful.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  an  incorrect  hypothesis  has 
been  instrumental  in  disclosing  many  new  facts  and  rela- 
tions. 


INTRODUCTION. 


There  have  been  and  arc,  however,  other  thoughtful  men, 
who,  speculating  upon  the  consequences  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  listening  to  the  footfalls  of  coming  events, 
have  formed  another  equally  well  working  hypothesis  as  to 
their  nature,  and  as  to  the  new  social  order  which  they 
will  inaugurate.  I  have  in  another  volume  '  assumed  to 
sketch,  in  its  broad  outlines,  this  future  social  order  to  which, 
I,  with  them,  look  forward,  and  which  I  have  styled  "  The 
Co-operative  Commonwealth."  It  is  this  hypothesis  I  here 
purpose  for  the  first  time  to  use,  so  to  speak,  as  spectacles 
through  which  to  look  at  the  French  Revolution ;  in  other 
words,  I  assume  the  co-operative  commonwealth  to  be,  if 
not  the  final,  at  least  the  next,  stage  in  the  evolution  of 
human  societies,  and  shall  try  to  explain  the  French  Revo- 
lution by  considering  it  as  a  most  important  step  toward 
that  stage. 

I  believe  I  shall  convince  many  of  my  readers  of  the  cor- 
rectness of  my  hypothesis,  from  its  ability  to  account  for  all 
phenomena.  And  if  it  is  the  true  one,  then  the  French 
Revolution  will  necessarily  become  invested  with  a  new 
interest,  with  a  persojial  interest,  for  us,  for  it  will  thereby 
become  a  part  of  our  history.  Its  relation  to  us  will  then 
be  reversed.  As  hitherto  it  has  been  looked  upon  as  a 
curiosity  to  be  explained,  so  now  it  will  be  used  to  explain 
our  own  situation.  It  will  not  only  become  an  example  or 
a  warning  to  us,  but  a  guide  that  will  teach  us,  not  to  pre- 
vent revolutions,  for  that  would  be  to  prevent  progress,  but 
how  to  prepare  for  our  Coming  Revolution,  and  how  to  carry 
it  through  in  an  orderly  manner. 

And  Danton?  It  is  evident  from  the  above  that  mj 
object  has  not  been  to  write  his  biography  ;  that  my  object 

•  The  Co-operative  Commaniuealth,  published  by  Swan  Sonnenschein,  London, 
Eiig.,  and  Lcc  and  Shepard,  Boston,  Mass. 


TYPICAL  FRENCH  REVOLUTIONIST.  5 

has  been  a  much  wider  one.  Yet  to  describe  and  discuss 
the  events  of  the  French  Revolution  is  necessarily  to  dis- 
cuss the  work  of  Danton,  since  it  fills  a  greater  part  of  the 
French  annals  during  the  five  fire-breathing  years  than  the 
work  of  all  his  contemporaries  combined.  It  ought,  how- 
ever, to  be  distinctly  understood  what  he  did  and  what  he 
did  not  do.  He  did  not  make  the  Revolution.  No  one 
did.  It  made  itself  in  the  minds  of  the  twenty-five  million 
Frenchmen  then  existing,  Danton's  included.  But  even 
here  he  may  be  taken  as  the  very  embodiment  of  the  Revo- 
lution, and  better  than  any  one  else  as  the  typical  French 
revolutionist  of  those  days.  Perhaps  he  also  contributed 
more  than  any  one  else,  not  excepting  Mirabeau,  to  remove 
the  stumbling-blocks  in  the  way  of  the  Revolution. 

But  while  he  did  not  make  the  Revolution,  he  more  than 
once  saved  it.  He  was,  indeed,  as  Carlyle  called  him,  the 
Atlas  who  in  the  most  critical  period  carried  the  Revolution 
on  his  shoulders.  Moreover,  being  a  more  constructive 
genius  than  any  ot  his  contemporaries,  he  laid  the  right 
foundation  for  the  future ;  and  his  policy  should  have  the 
credit  for  nearly  all  the  good  his  successors  accomplished, 
as  it  would  have  saved  France  from  all  the  subsequent  penal- 
ties she  has  had  to  pay,  had  it  been  constantly  pursued. 

Next,  Danton  the  monster,  Danton  as  nearly  all  our 
historians  paint  him,  is  purely  a  creation  of  the  imagination. 
It  is  the  French  Positivists  above  mentioned  who  at  last 
have  rehabilitated  him,  and  presented  him  in  his  true  pro- 
portions. That  Danton,  as  a  niaa  and  citizen,  was  pure, 
was  an  heroic  character,  is  now  abundantly  proved  by  the 
great  mass  of  new  material  which  these  Positivist  philoso- 
phers, as  well  as  Alfred  Bougeart,  have  collected  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years,  but  which  no  one,  I  believe,  has  trans- 
lated into  English  as  yet.  Indeed,  his  principal  defect,  one 
that  cost  France  dearly,  was  his  perfect  lack  of  ambition. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Tlie  principal  lessons  whicli  this  volume  will  draw  from 
the  French  Revolution,  in  the  way  of  example  and  warning, 
are,  that  I  )anton  was  a  true  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the 
Power  behind  Evolution,  and  just  the  kind  of  leader  we  in 
our  generation  should  encourage ;  that,  on  the  other  hand, 
good  intentions  alone  avail  nothing  in  popular  leaders,  and 
that  therefore  we  should,  7cnih  all  our  mighf,  repress  our 
Robespierres,  Heberts,  and  Marafs. 

The  words  ^a  ira  are  of  American  origin.  Benjamin 
Franklin,  while  ambassador  to  the  court  of  France  during 
the  American  Revolution,  was  constantly  questioned  about 
the  war  with  England.  His  usual  answer  was,  "  Ah,  qa 
ira!^^  ("  Oh,  it  goes  ! ")  This  gave  rise  to  the  first  revo- 
lutionary song,  jubilantly  chanted  by  all  patriots  on  the 
anniversary  of  the  taking  of  the  Bastille,  and  commencing, — 

"/i//,  fa  ira!  fa  ira!  (a  ira!" 

In  describing  the  doings  of  the  French  bourgeoisie,  from 
the  moment  they  acquired  influence,  I  have  made  consid- 
erable use  of  that  most  interesting  work,  Lundis  Revolu- 
tionnaires,  by  M.  Avenel. 


CA    IRA; 


DANTON    IN    THE    FRENCH    REVOLUTION. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   RISING   GENERATION. 
1748-1789. 


"  The  interest  of  historic  study  lies  in  tracing  the  devious  course  of  the  sacred 
torch,  as  it  shifts  from  bearer  to  bearer.  It  is  not  the  bearers  -who  are  most 
interesting,  but  the  torch."  — John  Morlev. 

Liberty  and  Law.  —  The  Drama  of  History.  —  The  "Sacred 
Torch"  passes  from  England  to  France. —The  Revolution 
MADE  BY  Books.  —  Danton's  Youth.  —  June  17.  —  "Ca  ira!" 

WAS  the  French  Revolution  a  failure  ? 
Our  most  eminent  historians  affirm  it.  First,  there 
is  Sir  Archibald  Alison,  who,  in  his  celebrated  History  of 
Europe,  declares  that  the  French  Revolution,  "the  most 
impassioned  effort  ever  made  for  the  attainment  of  public 
freedom,''  has  failed,  and  failed  not  only  for  a  time,  but 
forever.  Then  there  is  the  not  less  eminent  William  Smyth, 
late  professor  of  history  at  Cambridge,  who,  in  his  published 
and  widely  read  Lectures,  lays  repeated  stress  on  the  "fact" 
that  the  French  Revolution  did  not  succeed,  and  on  "  the 
great  calamity  that  the  cause  of  liberty  was  thus,  on  the 
whole,  lost.''     These  two  authorities,  not  to  si:)eak  of  lesser 

7 


8  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

lights,  ha\e  furnished  vast  numbers  of  lazy-thinking  people 
with  whatever  oi)inions  they  have  of  the  French  Revolution. 

1  contend  that  this  view  is  a  huge  blunder ;  if  it  is,  it 
vitiates  all  their  other  conclusions,  of  course.  I  insist  that 
the  French  Revolution  was  and  is  a  grand  success,  a  most 
signai  success :  the  dominant  class  in  France  to-day  would 
hardly  be  so  proud  of  "  the  principles  of  the  Revolution," 
and  be  preparing  to  celebrate  its  centennial  with  imposing 
pageants,  were  it  not ;  nor,  to  be  sure,  would  it  pulsate  in 
the  heart  of  all  Frenchmen  of  to-day,  whether  they  curse  or 
bless  it. 

How  account  for  the  blunder? 

In  the  case  of  the  above  "  authorities  "  that  is  easy  enough. 
They  are  simply  historians,  —  story-tellers  ;  and,  moreover, 
story-tellers  who  have  looked  only  at  the  surface  of  things. 
Note  how  they  talk  of  "liberty"  and  "public  freedom." 
That,  to  be  sure,  was  what  the  actors  in  the  French  Revolu- 
tion talked  about ;  the  word  "  liberty,"  meaning  "  absence 
of  restraints,"  w^as  constantly  in  their  mouths,  and,  I  grant, 
in  the  mouth  of  no  one  more  than  my  hero,  Danton.  Our 
superficial  historians,  then,  have  contented  themselves  with 
taking  the  revolutionists  on  their  word,  and  have  concluded 
that  Liberty  was,  in  truth,  the  end  and  aim  of  tlie  French 
Revolution ;  and,  since  Liberty  was  finally  crippled,  there- 
fore the  Revolution  failed. 

It  is,  however,  not  historians  alone  who  fall  into  this  error ; 
even  philosophers,  —  ay,  the  great  French  philosopher  Edgar 
Quinet  has  fallen  into  it.  He  dwells  on  the  motto  of  the 
revolutionists  :  ^tre  libre,  ou  mourir  ("  To  be  free,  or  die  "), 
and  regrets  that  they  who  knew  so  well  how  to  die,  did  not 
know  how  to  conquer  freedom. 

Well,  Frenchmen  of  a  century  ago  had  very  good  reasons 
for  being  preoccupied  widi  Liberty.  They  were  dominated 
by  these  two  sentiments,  —  a  violent  discontent  with  their 


i78g.]  LIBERTY  AND  LAW.  9 

actual  condition,  and  ardent  hopefulness  as  to  the  future. 
Liberty,  then,  was  for  the  time  being  their  most  pressing 
need,  for  it  was  the  indispensable  means  to  get  out  of  their 
condition.  This  need  was,  with  them,  instinctive.  These 
revolutionists,  even  the  greatest  among  them,  were  really 
Wind  actors,  guided  by  instinct.  No  wonder  they  mistook 
Liberty  for  an  end,  and  virtually  made  an  idol  of  it.  Yet 
Liberty,  after  all,  did  in  their  hands  prove  a  most  excellent 
instrument,  and  by  the  help  of  it  they  accomplished  what 
they  had  to  accomplish. 

But  it  is  inexcusable  that  any  thoughtful  person  in  our 
generation  should,  with  the  experience  and  teachers  we  have 
had,  still  be  making  an  idol  of  Liberty,  and  not  yet  know 
that  absence  of  restraints  is  valuable  only  as  a  tneans,  never 
as  an  end.  Never  !  When  Liberty  is  made  an  end,  it  always 
and  necessarily  defeats  itself;  that  is  to  say,  when  citizens 
are  unrestrained,  completely  "  at  liberty,"  they  always  will, 
if  able,  encroach  upon  their  fellows,  and  monopolize  all 
power.  However  virtuous,  in  the  long  run  they  will  always 
do  it :  it  is  human  nature.  In  truth,  this  is  the  lesson  which 
Carlyle  and  Emerson  have  so  unceasingly  been  trying  to 
inculcate,  —  that  Liberty  in  that  sense  is  a  very  poor  thing 
indeed.  And  that  noble  man,  Mazzini,  likewise  insisted 
continually  upon  this :  that  Liberty,  though  "  holy  as  a 
protest  against  oppression,"  and  powerful  to  destroy,  is  yet 
impotent  to  found  any  thing. 

No,  liberty  was  not  the  true  object  aimed  at  by  the  French 
Revolution,  nor  was  it  its  sanction.  Something  else  was,  — 
something  very  different ;  something  not  pertaining  to  the 
individual  at  all,  but  above  all  individuals.  To  bring  out 
this  fact,  is  precisely  the  main  purpose  of  this  book,  and 
will  throughout  give  it  its  tone. 

First  of  all,  we  must  reduce  the  French  Revolution  to  its 
true  proportions.     Here,  also,  the  revolutionary  actors  de- 


lO  THE  RISIXG  G  EXE  RATI  OX.  [1748- 

ccived  themselves.  They  foncied  lliat  their  nation  had 
suddenly  jumped  for  ahead  of  its  contemporaries,  and,  from 
its  own  all-conquering  initiative,  was  about  to  inaugurate  a 
brand-new  state  of  society,  something  of  which  the  outside 
barbarians  could  never  so  much  as  dream.  That  patriotic 
Frenchmen  even  now  are  possessed  with  the  same  idea, 
may  be  excused ;  but  when  our  historians,  and  especially 
philosophers,  still  look  on  the  Revolution  as  an  event  si/i 
geneiis,  as  an  isolated  fact  in  history,  that  again  is  a  mark 
of  superficiality. 

Here  the  profoundness  of  an  historic  philosopher  like 
John  Morley  manifests  itself.  On  the  first  page  of  liis 
Rousseau  he  places  side  by  side  the  series  of  remarkable 
changes  of  the  first  centuries  of  our  era,  and  the  similar 
series  of  the  last  two  centuries ;  to  the  former  he  gives  the 
generic  name  of  "  Christianity,"  and  to  the  latter,  /'//  tvhicli 
he  includes  the  French  ci'isis,  that  of  "  the  Revolution." 

By  the  way,  Gladstone  once  maintained  that  the  English 
way  of  saying  "  the  English  Revolution,"  "  the  American 
Revolution,"  or  "  the  French  Revolution,"  is  the  correct 
one,  and  contrasted  it  with  "  the  loose  Continental  usage  " 
of  speaking,  as  Morley  does,  of  "  the  Revolution."  The 
European  usage,  though  certainly  liable  to  misapprehension, 
is,  it  seems  to  me,  really  a  profound  form  of  speech. 

For  I  insist,  with  Morley,  that  the  French  Revolution,  far 
frcmi  being  a  unique  phenomenon,  as  thought  by  the  revolu- 
tionary actors,  is,  in  truth,  an  integral  part  of  that  set  of 
social  changes  which  was  first  successfully  started  by.  Luther 
in  Germany,  —  changes  that  have  involved  the  whole  of 
^Vestern  Europe,  and  in  whose  vortex  we  still  find  ourselves 
at  this  day.  The  French  Revolution  was  simply  a  pai-tial 
and  local  manifestation  of  these  changes  ;  in  other  words, 
//  was  the  application  of  this  series  of  changes  to  France, 
primarily,  and  to  this  is  precisely  due  its  success. 


1789.]  LIBERTY  AND  LAW.  II 

That  is  what  the  rcvoUitionary  actors  did.  They  effected 
tliis  ehair^e  in  France ;  they  did  it  in  a  most  effective,  in  a 
startHngly  effective,  manner.  That  was  their  merit,  and 
thereby  they  placed  France  for  a  time  in  advance  of  our 
race  ;  but  they  did  it  unconsciously,  instinctively.  They  did 
not  know  the  import  of  their  own  doings,  because  they 
ignored,  even  despised,  their  whole  previous  history. 

Yet,  in  order  to  understand  these  changes,  it  is  necessary 
to  understand  history ;  not  the  history  of  kings,  their  mis- 
tresses and  their  intrigues,  or  of  any  individual  or  individuals 
soever,  but  the  history  of  the  collective  life  of  humanity,  in 
which  each  of  us  has  his  proper  life.  History  concerns 
itself  properly  with  the  race,  which  has  as  rigid  a  unity  as 
any  of  its  individual  members  ;  with  society,  which  is  the 
guardian  of  our  destiny  as  a  race,  and  which  is  not  an 
empirical  necessity,  but  a  living,  organizing  force.  History 
is  the  instinctive  effort  of  the  common,  associated,  mind  of 
the  race  to  come  to  self-consciousness,  to  put  on  form,  to 
realize  its  own  majestic  unity.  And  so  the  main  purpose  of 
history  is,  to  bring  man  to  a  proper  acquaintance  7vith  himself. 

^\'hen  man  thus  comes  to  a  proper  acquaintance  with 
himself,  to  real  self-consciousness,  he  cannot  help  becoming 
aware  of  a  something  animating  humanity,  and  directing  the 
march  of  the  race.  Human  events  cannot  possibly  be 
"  the  fortuitous  vagaries  of  an  eyeless  destiny."  The  idea 
that  they  were  the  inscrutable  decrees  of  an  ///human  Provi- 
dence, of  a  lordly,  capricious,  law/ess  despot,  which  was  cur- 
rent for  centuries,  is  not  tenable  any  longer.  The  tendency 
seems  to  be,  to  consider  them  the  ceaseless  efflux  of  a  helpful 
Presence  in  Humanity  working  by  law,  —  the  "  sacred  torch  " 
of  Morley,  the  God  of  Christians,  the  Power  behind  Evolu- 
tion I  like  to  call  it ;  and  history  then  becomes  a  true 
dramn,  plotted  by  that  Power,  This,  after  all,  is  the  only 
sane  foundation  for  any  hope  in  our  social  future.  It 


12  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

was  in  this  connection,  as  already  remarked  by  Henry 
James,  sen.,  that  Carlyle  sliowcd  himself  weak.  He  main- 
tained that  there  is  a  Supreme  Spirit  in  human  affairs,  but 
never  dreamt  of  that  truth  having  any  human  virtue,  being 
of  any  living  efficacy  to  help  us ;  hence  he  called  it  "  the 
Eternal  Silences,"  and  rather  pitied  those  who  believed  in 
its  effective  power  to  guide  us. 

The  drama  of  history,  then,  means  that  human  affairs  are 
directed  by  something  superior  to  ourselves,  superior  to  soci- 
ety itself;  that7£^^  at-e  ahvays  liviiigtimkr  law,  under  author- 
ity, under  a  moral  government,  recognized  or  unrecognized. 
The  French  revolutionists,  also,  were,  unknown  to  themselves, 
obeying  this  authority ;  authority  was  the  sanction  of  the 
French  Revolution,  which  in  the  last  resort  was  successful, 
because  the  expression  of  this  Supreme  Will. 

And,  as  it  so  happens  that  just  now  we  have  become  en- 
abled, as  we  shall  see,  to  interpret  history  correctly,  we  now 
can  conform  to  this  moral  government  of  the  world,  and  co- 
operate with  it.  Louis  Blanc  thought  that  human  progress  is 
from  authority  in  the  past,  through  individualism  in  the  pres- 
ent, to  fraternity  in  the  future.  But  authority  and  fraternity 
are  not  antagonistic  ;  therefore  it  is  more  correct  to  say,  from 
absolutism  in  the  past  (a  human  authority,  now  seen  to  have 
been  a  sham  authority),  through  present  individualism,  to  a 
real,  riglitftil  aiitliority,  whatever  it  be,  based  on  the  verities 
of  things.  Liberty,  based  on  the  "  rights  "  of  the  individ- 
ual, is  undoui^tedly  at  times  a  sacred  thing,  but,  after  all, 
Ijut  a  temporary  necessity.  Mazzini  undoubtedly  is  riglit : 
"  What  the  world  is  at  present  thirsting  for  is  authority.'' 
\Ve  all  of  us,  without  any  exception  whatever,  want  to  be 

guided. 

*         «         * 

In  what  did  this  set  of  changes  consist? 

We  are  now  able  to  answer  this  (juestion,  —  in  other  words, 


1789.1  THE  DRAMA    OF  HISTORY.  13 

able  to  unravel  tlic  plot  of  the  drama  of  history,  —  because 
we  lately  have  been  furnished  with  the  right  key. 

Men  have  at  all  times  had  a  suspicion  that  there  is  an 
intelligible  law  of  things,  which  it  is  our  urgent  business  to 
ascertain,  and  then  conform  to.  We  at  length  have  ascer- 
tained the  law  (which  is  the  greatest  intellectual  revolutionary 
achievement  since  the  times  of  Copernicus)  :  it  is  that  of 
evolution.  To  apply  the  theory  of  evolution  to  history,  is 
applying  the  key  to  it. 

We  now  know  that  societies,  nations,  move  ;  next,  that  they 
move,  not  by  leaps,  but  by  growths.  But  Herbert  Spencer, 
who  has  done  so  much  to  popularize  the  theory  of  evolution, 
seems  to  imply,  in  all  his  writings,  that  this  motion  is  by 
uniform,  gradual,  regular,  and  always  slow  steps.  This  is 
certainly  not  so. 

Nearly  the  whole  historic  period  of  man  is  filled  up  with 
two  long,  ai/nost  stationary  periods,  —  organic  periods,  we 
can,  with  Saint-Simon,  properly  call  them ;  periods  in  which 
mankind  secretes  a  kind  of  hard,  thick  shell  around  itself. 
The  first  of  these  "organic  "  periods  begins  with  the  dawn 
of  history,  and  ends  with  the  Roman  republic ;  the  second 
takes  us  through  another  thousand  years,  from  the  ascend- 
ency of  Christianity  to  the  Reformation.  The  former  consti- 
tutes the  Ancient  World,  with  its  golden  age  of  Greece  and 
Rome  ;  the  latter,  the  Middle  Age,  which  also  has  its  golden 
age  :  that  period  in  which  Dante  lived,  which  Carlyle  is 
perfectly  right  in  calling,  "  with  its  Feudal  body  and  Catho- 
lic soul,  the  highest  ideal  yet  realized  by  man." 

The  stationary  condition,  then,  is  the  rule,  is  the  normal 
condition  of  the  race  :  and  mark,  it  is  in  that  condition  that 
mankind  enjoys  the  fruits  of  its  struggles  and  martyrdoms  ; 
it  is  then  that  the  arts  and  literature  flourish  ;  it  is  then  we 
find  high  ideals,  corporate  responsibility,  and  public  spirit ; 
it  is  then  men  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  common  weal  as  a 


14  THE  RISIXG  GENERATION.  (1748- 

matter  of  course.  That  condition,  finally,  is  marked  by 
unity,  by  system,  —  precisely  what  makes  these  periods  so 
durable,  lasting,  organic. 

Thus,  of  historic  times  there  remain  two  shorter  periods, 
—  that  from  the  Roman  republic  to  the  establishment  of 
Christianity ;  and  another,  not  yet  closed,  from  Luther  to 
our  days.  John  Morley  has  observed  that  these  two  short 
periods,  each  lasting  about  four  hundred  years,  somehow 
correspond  to  each  other ;  and  both  are  periods  of  changes, 
transition  states,  critical  periods,  again  to  call  them  after 
Saint-Simon.  The  bond  tliat  hitherto  united  men  —  the 
collective  conception  of  the  world  —  has,  both  then  and 
now,  been  broken,  and  every  one  is  left  to  seek  truth  in 
his  own  way  :  that  is  to  say,  while  hitherto  there  has  been 
systematic  unity,  now  every  thing  is  planless,  orderless ; 
everywhere  perfect  anarchy  reigns,  —  in  beliefs,  in  morals, 
in  politics,  in  social  relations,  and,  worst  of  all,  in  industrial 
relations.  While  before  things  were  nearly  stationary,  now 
things  are  evidently  in  motion.  But  this  motion  is  far  from 
being  regular.  First  it  is  slow,  very  slow ;  then  it  becomes 
(juicker  and  quicker ;  then  it  moves  with  railroad  speed  — 
look  at  our  century  !  Lastly,  the  final  change  to  the  new 
organic  order  —  the  revolution,  in  fact  —  may  be  accom- 
plished so  swiftly  that  the  living  generation  can  hardly  re- 
cover its  breath. 

But  there  is  constant  progress,  —  progress  along  a  certain 
line,  not  a  straight  nor  a  curved,  but  a  spiral  line,  like 
unto  a  winding  staircase.  Each  of  these  periods,  critical  as 
well  as  organic,  is  really  on  a  higher  plane  than  any  of  its 
predecessors. 

There  is  a  constant  gro7oth  in  co-operation.  Our  whole 
civilization  may  be  called  a  lesson  in  co-operation  ;  and  note, 
that  it  is  around  the  working-classes  that  the  battle  of  prog- 
ress has  constantly  been  waged. 


1789.1  THE  DRA}TA    OF  HISTORY.  1 5 

In  the  fust  organic  period,  in  ancient  Greece  and  Rome,  we 
find  coiiipidsoyy  co-operation  in  its  harshest  form,  —  slavery. 

In  the  second  organic  period,  tlie  Middle  Ages,  we  find 
a  milder,  ranch  more  humane  form,  also  of  compiilso7y 
co-operation,  —  serfdom. 

In  the  transition  period  in  which  we  are  living  we  have 
attained  to  7'c7///;^Az;j  co-operation  for  those  who  have  means, 
for  the  well-off  middle  classes,  and  a  still  milder  form  of 
covtpiilsory  co-operation  for  those  who  have  no  property,  — 
wagedom.  Compulsory?      Yes,  they  are  compelled 

by  their  daily  wants. 

What  the  French  Revolution  was  to  do  was,  to  introduce 
into  France,  primarily,  this  transition  period,  this  critical 
period,  with  its  propertied  middle  classes  and  its  wage  sys- 
tem. And  that  was  to  be  done,  first,  by  putting  an  end  to 
the  feudal.  Catholic  system  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  next,  by 
placing  the  middle  classes  into  supreme  power.  What  im- 
portant function  they  were  charged  with,  and  how  they  have 
performed  it  in  France,  we  shall  afterwards  see. 
*         *         * 

This  very  change,  however,  which  now  was  to  be  worked 
out  in  France,  had  already  been  accomplished  in  England  in 
all  essential  respects.  Instead  of  having  to  do  something 
ittiique,  as  the  French  revolutionists  fancied,  they  needed 
simply  to  copy  the  model  they  had  in  England  ;  and  that  is 
what,  after  all,  they  virtually  did.  We  know  that  both  king 
and  patriots  anxiously  studied  the  histories  of  Charles  the 
First  and  James  the  Second  ;  and  their  instincts  did  not  mis- 
lead them,  for  the  "  Commonwealth  "  of  1649  and  the  revo- 
lution of  168S  form  together,  in  truth,  England's  "French 
Revolution."  These  did  for  Great  Britain  what  the  French 
Revolution  did  for  France,  —  overthrew  the  divine  right  of 
kings,  absolutism,  and  invested  the  plutocracy  with  political 
power. 


1 6  THE  RISIXG  GEXERATIOX.  [1748- 

As  this  part  of  British  history  was  nothing  less  than  a 
precedent  for  France,  we  ought  to  dwell  on  it  a  little. 

The  English  plutocrats  had  obtained  dominion  in  the 
towns  as  early  as  the  fourteenth  century.  That  dominion 
had  gone  on  increasing  to  such  an  extent,  that  two  centuries 
later  a  statute  had  to  he  passed  to  protect  small  masters 
against  rich  ones.  This  statute  (2d  and  3d,  Phil,  and  Mary) 
recited  that  "  rich  clothiers  do  oppress  the  weavers  by  pay- 
ing less  wages  than  formerly ;  by  engrossing  the  looms,  and 
letting  them  out  at  unreasonable  rents  ;  by  employing  unskil- 
ful journeymen,  etc."  During  the  reign  of  Charles  a  series 
of  technical  discoveries  throw  manufactures  altogether  into 
the  hands  of  large  capitalists.  They  carry  the  trade  to  places 
free  from  the  control  of  the  craft-guilds,  like  Birmingham  and 
Manchester,  until  the  guilds  gradually  die  out  before  this 
rising  great  industry. 

And  now  events  run  on  precisely  as  we  find  they  do  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  later  in  France.  The  King  needs 
money,  and  calls  on  the  rich  middle  classes  for  it.  The 
Long  Parliament  corresponds  to  the  French  National  Assem- 
bly, even  to  the  extent  that  it,  too,  clears  landed  property  of 
many  inconvenient  and  oppressive  feudal  burdens,  for  the 
benefit  of  capitalists.  Jolni  Pym,  like  Sieyes  later,  initiates 
the  political  revolution  in  England  by  insisting  that  "  the 
House  of  Commons  is  the  essential  part  of  Parliament,"  and 
by  telling  the  lords  that  "  the  Commons  are  ready  to  save 
the  kingdom  alone."  When  at  length  the  physical  struggle 
commences,  London  and  the  middle  classes  side  with  Sir 
Harry  Vane  and  the  Commonwealth  men,  as  Paris  later  on 
does  with  Danton  and  the  Mountain.  Finally,  on  Jan.  4, 
1649,  the  Rump  Parliament  declares  that  "  the  Commons 
of  England,  being  chosen  by  and  representing  the  people, 
half  e  the  supreme  power  in  this  nation;  "  and  this  declaration 
foreshadows  the  action  of  the  French  Convention. 


i78g.]         THE  SACRED   TORCH  E¥  ERA NCE.  17 

Ucsidcs  these  essential  correspondences,  there  are  many 
curious  coincidences.  Naseby  of  1645  coincides  with 
"Aug.  10;"  Pride's  Purge,  applauded  by  Sir  Harry,  with 
what  I  shall  call  the  suspension  of  the  Girondins,  con- 
tributed to  by  Danton.  In  both  revolutions  the  reigning 
kings  were  executed,  —  and,  by  the  way,  it  is  almost  comi- 
cal, when  we  think  of  the  fate  of  their  own  royal  family,  to 
recall  the  reproaches  and  contumely  which  P'renchmen  of 
the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  heaped  on  the  English  for  their  "  bru- 
tality "  and  '•  disloyalty  "  in  their  treatment  of  Charles  and 
James.  Both  crises  ended  in  the  supremacy  of  successful, 
selfish  soldiers ;  in  both  countries  this  supremacy  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  restoration ;  in  one,  as  in  the  other,  the  restored 
monarch  was  followed  by  his  brother ;  and  lastly,  in  one  as 
in  the  other,  this  brother  was  exiled,  and  gave  way  to  a  con- 
stitutional, middle-class  king.  But  there  was  this  essential 
and  never-to-be-forgotten  difference,  because  it  augurs  well 
for  the  Coming  Revolution  in  Great  Britain  :  that  the  foreign 
potentates  did  not  attempt  to  save  their  crowned  English 
brother,  while  they  did  interfere  in  the  French  Revolution, 
and  thereby  raised  ujd  —  the  Terror. 

//  is,  however,  in  tJic  region  of  ideas  that  the  connecting 
link  between  the  two  revolutions  is  to  be  found. 

Our  acts  are  always  under  the  empire  of  our  ideas,  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously.  More  particularly  is  this  so  with 
social  revolutions  ;  i.e.,  changes  from  one  social  order  to 
another,  even  if  only  to  a  transitional  order.  These  always 
start  in  the  region  of  ideas,  and  first  of  all  in  those  ideas 
that  have  the  most  powerful  dominion  over  men, — their 
rehgious  conceptions,  their  views  of  the  universe  and  their 
own  place  in  it.  Naturally  this  change  first  shows  itself  in 
the  form  of  scej^ticism,  religious  anarchy ;  then  the  anarchy 
filters  down  to  tliose  ideas  that  relate  to  our  fellow-men,  to 
society,  to  our  moral  and  political  notions ;  finally  the  anar- 


i8  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

chy  roaclics  economics,  the  basis  of  society.  There  the  real 
revolution,  the  real  change,  takes  place ;  and  there,  on  the 
new  basis,  our  new  political,  moral,  and  religious  ideas  are 
reconstructed. 

Accordingly  the  English  Revolution  commenced  with  the 
loosening  of  religious  authority  by  Wickliffe,  the  father  of 
the  Reformation.  We  know  for  certain  that  this  movement 
in  religion  caused  the  movement  in  political  ideas,  because 
Ilobbes  tells  us  that  "the  enemies  of  King  Charley  were 
Presbyterians,  Independents,  Anabaptists,  Fifth-Monarchy 
men,"  and  that  their  opposition  "arose  from  the  private 
interpretation  of  Scriptures  in  the  mother-tongue."  Now, 
it  was  one  of  the  striking  peculiarities  of  Protestantism,  that 
it  set  people  to  study  admiringly  the  history  of  the  Hebrew 
nation,  "  the  most  rebellious  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth," 
and  thus  made  the  Hebrew  example  an  incentive  to  them 
to  change  the  form  of  their  own  government,  and  the  Old 
Testament  a  basis  for  their  political  si^eculations.  But  note 
this  peculiarity  in  the  English  Revolution  :  that  the  political 
philosophy  which  justifies  it  was  not  elaborated  he/ore  the 
political  innovation,  but  only  years  afterwards,  for  the  good 
and  sufficient  reason  that  printing  was  as  yet  but  little 
developed.  "^ 

It  was  from  and  after  the  year  1700  that  the  two  eminent 
English  philosophers  Hobbes  and  Locke,  to  ease  their  con- 
sciences, made  known  their  new  revolutionary  political 
speculations.  Hobbes'  celebrated  theory  was,  that  a  cove- 
nant between  man  and  man  created  "  that  great  leviathan 
called  the  Commonwealth."  In  other  words,  he  taught  the 
nation,  first,  that  the  basis  of  society  is  contract,  or  that 
the  origin  of  all  power  is  in  the  people  ;  next,  that  the  end  of 
government  is  the  weal  of  the  Commonwealth,  or  the  peo- 
ple's good  :  and  he  very  soon  made  these  ideas  generally 
accepted,  which  forever  put  an  end  to  the  old  patriarchal 


1789.1      THE  REVOLUTION  MADE  BY  BOOKS.       19 


theory  of  society.      lA)cke   then  appeared,  ami  added  the 
lesson  of  the  right  of  resistance  to  bad  rulers. 

Now  the  "  sacred  torch  "  passes  over  from  England  to 
France ;  that  is  to  say,  these  English  revolutionary  princi- 
ples are  transplanted  into  French  soil,  are  adopted  and 
elaborated  by  French  writers.  It  is  from  the  date  of  the 
first  French  book  embodying  them  that  we  ought  truly  to 
date  the  French  Revolution.  It  is  from  the  date  1 748  that 
France  commences  her  glorious  career,  which  for  many 
years  places  her  in  advance  of  other  nations  ;  and  that  glory 
is  thus  due  to  the  fact,  that,  unlike  their  successors,  her 
writers  were  then  willing  to  learn  from  other  nations. 
*         *         * 

These  writers  were  Montesquieu,  Diderot,  Rousseau. 
These  three  men  made  the  French  Revolution,  as  far  as  any 
individuals  can  be  said  to  have  made  it. 

A  "revolution,"  in  its  narrower  sense,  is  the  sweeping,  the 
decisive  change,  which  all  progress  passes  through  at  some 
point  in  its  career.  It  only  takes  a  minute  to  bring  into  the 
world  the  infant  whose  preparation  has  required  nine  months 
in  the  mother's  womb.     Birth  is  a  revolution. 

So  it  took  only  a  few  minutes,  on  a  certain  June  day  in 
the  year  ^  7S9,  for  the  French  Revolution  to  be  born  ;  but  its 
preparation,  its  making,  lasted  forty  years.  It  was  made  by 
the  above  writers  in  the  brains  of  Danton  and  his  fellows 
of  the  generation  born  after  1748. 

And  //  was  made  by  books,  because  printing  had  now  so 
far  advanced,  that  they  who  were  to  be  emancipated  could 
all  read.  And,  by  the  way,  the  Coming  Revolution, 

in  like  manner,  will,  first  and  foremost,  be  a  mental  revolu- 
tion, and  be  made  by  books  ;  for  now  all  can  read. 

The  book  of  Alontesquieu,  The  Spirit  of  Laws,  appeared 
1748,  eleven  years  before  Danton's  birth.  Nobody  reads 
the  book  now  for  information's  sake.    It  is  extremely  shallow, 


20  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

l)Olh  in  knowledge  and  thoughts.  But  when  it  appeared,  it 
took  the  whole  public,  especially  the  middle  classes,  by 
storm.  It  colored  the  whole  literature  of  France  for  the 
rest  of  the  century  :  and  no  wonder,  as  it  introduced  just 
the  ideas  that  were  then  needed ;  it  gave  working  answers 
to  the  burning  political  questions. 

Montesquieu  passes  in  review  all  the  laws  and  political 
institutions  of  the  various  countries,  and  compares  their 
excellences  and  defects.  At  length  he  reaches  Great  Britain, 
before  whose  institutions  he  remains  standing  in  unbounded 
admiration,  almost  adoration ;  and  he  inoculates  the  whole 
French  nation  with  the  same  feeling.  Anglomania  becomes, 
from  that  moment,  the  dominant  passion  of  Frenchmen. 
Of  course,  what  Montesquieu  found  so  excellent  was  the  lib- 
erty and  consideration  enjoyed  in  England  by  the  common 
citizens  of  properly,  but  he  did  not  analyze  either  his  feel- 
ings or  their  object.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  neither  he  nor 
his  contemporaries  had  any  idea  of  the  true  nature  of  human 
societies.  His  own  leading  doctrine  was,  "  It  is  government 
and  institutions  which  make  men  what  they  are."  He  found 
that  the  principal  among  British  institutions  was  the  British 
Constitution,  and  as  a  principal  feature  in  that  constitution 
a  division  of  powers,  one  checking  the  other.  This,  then, 
he  thinks,  must  be  the  secret  spring  that  causes  British  well- 
being.  Go  to  work,  then,  France,  and  copy  faithfully  this 
constitution,  and  particularly  this  division  of  powers  ! 

This,  in  fact,  gives  rise  to  the  two  leading  principles  of  his 
book,  to  wit : 

"  In  order  that  there  may  not  be  an  abuse  of  power,  things 
should  be  so  arranged  that  one  poiver  checks  another ;  "  and 

"  The  problem  is,  not  to  destroy  authority,  but  to  render 
it  impotent." 

These  are  splendid  "  principles  "  for  a  transit/on  state, 
such  a  one  as  was  about  to  be  introduced  into  France. 


1789.1      THE  REVOLUTION  MADE  BY  BOOKS.       21 

No  wonder  he  awoke  the  pohtical  passions  of  the  middle 
classes.  They  saw  in  him  their  true  legislator,  since  he  so 
charmingly  disarmed  the  authority  under  which  they  were 
fretting,  and  gave  so  many  guaranties  to  the  individualism, 
the  license,  for  which  they  were  sighing.  No  wonder,  that, 
as  soon  as  the  Revolution  was  an  accomplished  fact,  he  be- 
came the  inspirer  of  the  political  labors  of  the  middle  classes, 
of  the  Constituent  Assembly,  and  then  of  the  Girondin 
party  ! 

Next,  Diderot,  the  inspirer  of  the  Dantonists,  in  particu- 
lar; this  giant,  whose  importance  to  the  Revolution  the 
French  at  last  have  recognized  by  erecting  a  statue  to  him 
in  Paris  on  the  spot  where  his  house  formerly  stood.  He 
shall  be  here  considered  only  as  the  chief  of  that  band  of 
writers  who  created  the  Encyclopccdia,  "  that  monumental 
ruin  of  thirty  stout  volumes,"  which  now  are  still  less  read 
than  The  Spirit  of  Laws.  Yet  what  influence  they  once 
had! 

The  EncyclopcEdia  is  the  gospel  of  labor,  a  glorification 
of  productive  industry,  for  which  it  inspired  its  readers  with 
an  earnest  enthusiasm  as  the  true  basis  of  the  new  era. 
"  To  turn  over  volume  after  volume  is  like  watching  a  splen- 
did panorama  of  the  busy  life  of  the  time,"  says  Morley. 
Its  significance  precisely  consists  in  this,  —  that  it  laid  down, 
with  a  fearlessness  that  was  risky  at  the  time,  the  necessary 
economic  conditions  for  the  coming  middle-class  rule,  and 
demanded  unlimited  freedom  in  all  relations  of  industrial 
life.  It  was  no  small  merit  that  it  anticipated  all  the  essen- 
tial propositions  laid  down  by  Adam  Smith  in  his  Wealth  of 
Nations,  which  appeared  several  years  later.  Indeed,  it  was 
the  Encyclopaedists  who  first  made  the  name  "  political 
economy,"  as  well  as  the  thing  itself,  popular.  We  have  the 
testimony  of  Voltaire  for  the  latter  fact :  "  The  nation,  tired 
of  verses,    tragedies,    comedies,    operas,    romances,    moral 


22  THE  RISIXG   GENERATIOX.  [1748- 

rfllections,  and  theological  disputes,  finally  commenced 
talking  about  corn.  They  forgot  all  about  wine,  in  order  to 
talk  of  wheat.  They  wrote  useful  things  about  agriculture, 
which  every  one  read  except  agriculturists." 

The  Encyclopaedists  first  claimed  the  abolition  of  guilds. 
"These,"  they  said,  "are  supposed  to  be  established  to 
guarantee  capacity  and  integrity  in  artisans  and  manufac- 
turers :  they  at  present  do  nothing  of  the  kind ;  they  have 
become  monopolies,  hurtful  to  the  national  interests.  The 
rich  and  the  great  have  laid  hands  not  only  on  the  land,  the 
fields,  and  the  buildings,  but  through  tliese  guilds  they  have 
interdicted  the  industrious  and  skilful  the  use  of  their  labors. 
They  must  be  uprooted,  and  perfect  liberty  be  established  in 
all  the  trades  and  professions." 

France  was  at  that  time  divided  into  provinces,  each  witli 
its  custom-houses.  The  Encyclopaedists  demanded  their 
abolition,  as  "  they  paralyze  commerce." 

In  many  respects  they  write  just  as  an  orthodox  economist 
of  to-day.  They  find  interest  perfectly  legitimate  ;  they  want 
it  not  only  legalized,  but  the  rate  of  interest  left  to  the  lender 
and  borrower  to  settle.  Capital  is,  according  to  them,  legiti- 
mately entitled  to  its  profits.  "  Just  as  corn,  when  sowed  in 
the  earth,  reproduces  with  advantage,  so  the  capitalist  sows 
in  commerce  his  and  his  ancestors'  industry."  They  wish 
to  bring  on  competition,  "  which  will  lower  prices."  It  should 
be  steadily  borne  in  mind  that  such  ideas  were  at  the  time 
absolutely  new. 

Another  quotation,  from  the  pen  of  Diderot  himself,  will 
show  how  suited  to  the  middle  classes  their  other  ideas 
were  :  "  It  is  property  which  makes  the  citizen.  Every  man 
who  has  possessions  in  the  .State  is  interested  in  the  State  ; 
it  is  by  means  of  his  possessions  that  he  acquires  a  right  of 
having  himself  represented."  In  their  eyes,  then,  tlie  first 
of "  the  rights  of  man  "  was  midiUc-class  right  to  property. 


1,89.]      THE  REVOLUTION  MADE  BY  BOOKS.       23 

But  understand  that  they  were  eminently  noble  men,  with 
noble  hearts.  They  had  an  undivided  love  for  all  their  fel- 
low-men, a  steadfast  faith  in  human  nature,  and  firm  aspira- 
tions after  justice  and  progress.  They  really  fancied  that 
the  liberty  and  equality  —  i.e.,  equality  before  the  law  — 
after  which  they  strove  would  make  this  world  into  a  para- 
dise. Liberty  was  to  them  a  young,  beautiful,  promising 
maiden  ;  they  had  no  idea  that  she  could  ever,  by  remaining 
unniated,  become  an  old  hag. 

V.\<i\\  their  atheism  was  a  fruit  of  their  nobiUty  of  heart. 
Tlie  God  they  repudiated  was  the  omnipotent,  lordly,  ca- 
pricious one  of  dogmatic  religion,  revelling  in  his  own  unem- 
jjloyed  strength,  while  complacently  looking  down  on  the 
infinite  miseries  of  his  creatures  here  below,  and  therefore 
clearly  on  the  side  of  the  rich  and  mighty. 

Rousseau,  the  inspirer  of  most  of  the  Mountain  party,  was, 
in  almost  all  his  ideas,  a  very  antipode  to  both  Montesquieu 
and  the  Encyclopaedists,  and  yet  his  teachings  pulled  men 
the  same  way  as  theirs,  and  even  with  greater  force.  The 
latter,  as  we  have  seen,  were  enthusiastically  for  improve- 
nieiit  and  progress,  for  which  Rousseau  had  only  contempt. 
Could  there  be  a  greater  divergence?  But  they  agreed  in 
hating  the  society  in  which  they  were  living,  and  in  adoring 
antitjuity,  —  that  was  their  point  of  union. 

Why  this  love  of  theirs  for  antiquity?  It  is  a  most 
interesting  question,  and  this  is  probably  the  right  answer : 
They  wanted  to  make  their  fellows  disgusted  with  their  pres- 
ent situation ;  they  could  not  do  this  by  contrasting  it  with 
a  future  of  which  they  knew  nothing,  not  even  the  elements. 
Thus  compelled  to  contrast  it  with  the  past,  with  antiquity, 
they  presented  in  glowing  colors  the  advantages  which  an- 
tiquity possessed  over  the  Middle  Ages,  omitting  all  the 
glaring  disadvantages,  because  themselves  blind  to  them. 

Rousseau  in  jjarticular  had  g.  tenacious  liking  for  Sparta 


24  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

and  Lycurgus,  and  employed  all  his  remarkable  passion  and 
wonderful  persuasiveness  and  sonorousness  to  make  his  con- 
temporaries share  that  liking.  He  succeeded  triumphantly 
with  two  sinister  disciples,  —  Robespierre  and  the  young 
fanatic  Saint-Just. 

His  Social  Contract  became  an  armory  from  which  the 
most  terrible  weapons  were  drawn  wherewith  to  batter  down 
the  old  society.  This  little  book,  also,  is  but  rarely  read 
now,  —  and  I  really  should  consider  it  a  sign  of  a  weak  mind 
in  our  times  to  study  it  for  the  sake  of  instruction,  —  Ijut  how 
many  editions  of  it  were  published  during  its  first  twenty 
years  of  existence  !     It  first  appeared  in  1761. 

The  reason  of  its  success  must  be  sought  in  the  fact,  that 
men,  worked  upon  by  the  spirit  of  the  age,  felt  an  irresistible 
inclination  to  alter  their  social  condition,  and  were  exceed- 
ingly desirous  to  find  arguments  wherewith  to  satisfy  their 
consciences,  and  theories  that  would  clothe  their  aspirations 
with  righteousness.  The  Social  Contract  furnished  such 
arguments  —  specious  arguments  —  in  abundance.  Men 
grasped  all  the  phrases  convenient  to  them,  and  rejected  the 
rest. 

All  the  leading  doctrines  of  the  little  book  are  those  of 
Hobbes  and  Locke,  already  spoken  of,  which  Rousseau  modi- 
fied just  enough  to  suit  his  purpose.  Its  central  doctrine, 
which  made  it  a  veritable  "  gospel  of  Jean  Jacques,"  is  the 
dogma  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  ;  in  other  words,  of 
popular  absolutism.  Society  is  founded  on  a  convention,  a 
pa(-t  which  human  will  has  made,  and  which,  therefore,  hu- 
man will  can  unmake  or  change  at  pleasure.  When  a  gov- 
ernment usurps  this  sovereignty,  the  pact  is  broken,  and  the 
citizens  are  restored  to  their  natural  liberty ;  they  may  then 
be  forced  to  obey,  but  are  not  morally  obliged  to.  Now, 
since  the  book  commences  with  the  words,  "  Man,  tliough 
born  free,  is  yet  everywhere  in  chains,"  it  follows  that  the 


1789. 1      THE  REVOLUTION  MADE  BY  BOOKS.       25 

pact  is  broken  everywhere.  This  was  the  way  he  inspired 
the  people  with  the  rii:;]it  to  l)reak  the  social  bond  at  the 
same  time  as  he  inflamed  them  with  sutlicient  passion  to  feel 
themselves  able  to  do  it.  And  thus  this  book  became  the 
mightiest  revolutionary  instrument  for  doing  what  was  to  be 
done,  and  Jean  Jacques  deserves  our  gratitude  for  it. 

It  has  been  remarked  about  all  three  writers,  that  their 
books  are  not  read,  and  deserve  not  to  be  read,  in  our  days. 
However  well  they  served  their  purpose  a  century  ago,  they 
contain  nothing  that  can  satisfy  our  needs  to-day.  What 
the  French  Revolution  had  to  do  was,  essentially,  to  destroy  a 
social  order,  and  then  to  build  up  a  merely  temporary  transi- 
tion state.  But  the  Coming  Revolution  is  essentially  construc- 
tive, and  is  to  build  up  a  virtually  permanent  social  order ; 
hence  the  books  that  are  to  prepare  for  it  must  be  grounded 
on  social  science,  as  much  as  medical  books  on  biology.  But 
the  writers  we  have  now  discussed  knew  nothing  of  social 
science,  had  not  the  remotest  ideas  of  the  nature  of  human 
societies  ;  that  the  first  two  had  grasped  the  idea  oi progress, 
was  already  a  great  advance. 

The  mental  revolution  was  now  complete.  Every  one 
noticed  it,  even  princes  of  the  blood.  In  December,  1 788, 
they  said,  in  a  memorandum  to  the  king,  "  A  revolution  is 
taking  place  in  the  principles  of  governments,  brought  on  by 
a  ferment  in  the  minds  of  the  people.  Institutions  held 
sacred  for  so  many  ages  are  made  subjects  of  debate,  and 
even  decried  as  replete  with  injustice." 
*         *         * 

It  was  in  this  mental  atmosphere  that  Danton  grew  up,  — 
Georges  yaeqites  Danton,  the  French  Sir  Harry  Vane,  who 
was  more  than  once  to  save  France  and  the  Revolution,  and 
then  be  butchered. 

He  was  born  Oct.  26,  1759;  at  Arcis-sur-Aube,  a  lilUe 
country  town  about  a  hundred  miles  from  Paris,  situate  in 


26  THE  RISING  GEXERATIOX.  [1748- 

,^^ 

what  was  then  the  province  of  Champagne,  which  has  given 
birth  to  so  many  celebrated  Frenchmen.  He  belonged 
by  birth  to  the  middle  dasses.  His  father  died  soon  after  his 
birth,  and  his  mother  a  few  years  afterwards  married  one 
Ricordain,  a  small  manufacturer,  who  proved  himself  an 
excellent  stepfather. 

Danton  got  a  fair  classical  education  in  various  schools  at 
Troyes,  the  chief  city  of  Champagne.  There  are  only  two 
incidents  worth  noting  fronj.  his  sclmol-days.  One  is  the 
crowning  of  the  young  king  *Louis-''XVI.  at  Rheims,  a  city 
distant  twenty-eight  miles  from  Troyes,  in  the  year  1774. 
The  young  lad,  then  fifteen  years  old,  "svho  was  destined  one 
day  to  unmake  that  very  king,  determined  to  go  and  see  how 
he  was  made.  He  goes  on  foot,  sees  every  thing,  returns, 
and  gets  some  slight  punishment  for  absenting  himself  widi- 
out  leave.  What  seems  to  have  impressed  him  most,  besides 
the  King's  taking  the  oath,  was  the  numerous  birds  which 
they  had  let  loose  inside  the  church.  "  Nice  liberty  !  "  he 
used  to  say  to  his  schoolfellows,  "  to  fly  within  four  walls, 
with  nothing  to  eat."     Quite  a  suggestive  remark. 

The  other  incident  was  when  a  schoolmate,  a  big  lad 
named  Pare,  who  afteiwards  occupied  high  positions,  was  to 
be  corporally  punished  for  some  slight  offence.  Danton 
boldly  stepped  forward,  and  protested  against  the  bodily 
l)unishment  of  so  large  a  boy  as  a  shame,  and  against  the 
tlignity  of  the  whole  class ;  and  he  succeeded  in  ha\-ing  the 
l)unishment  altered. 

This  last  incident  already  shows  Danton's  principa:l  char- 
acteristics, which  clung  to  him  during  life,  —  affectionateness 
and  boldness.  He  loved  dearly  his  mother,  his  stepfather, 
and  afterwards  his  first  and  second  wife.  He  made  perfect 
confidants  of  his  mother,  and  later  of  his  wives.  As  a  boy, 
he  was  belovetl  l)y  his  teachers  and  fellow-scholars,  in  spite 
of  his  face  being  undeniably  a  very  ugly  one.     His  natural 


1789. 1  DANTOX'S   YOUTH.  27 

ugliness  liad  l)ocn  much  increased  by  his  very  boldness. 
When  a  boy,  he  had  fights  with  almost  all  kinds  of  pug- 
nacious animals,  and  they  generally  left  their  marks  on  him. 
Once  his  upper  lip  was  cut,  then  his  nose  was  broken,  and 
lastly  he  took  a  fever  from  bathing,  which  ended  in.  small- 
pox, that  marked  him  for  life.  But  he  was  of  a  frank,  com- 
municative disposition  ;  that  ugly  face  of  his,  nevertheless, 
was  radiant  with  intelligence  and  good  humor;  and  his 
turbulent  character  was  calmed  by  the  least  caress  of  his 
mother. 

Later  on  he  frequently  alluded  to  his  looks  in  his  addresses  : 
"  My  Medusa-head,  which  causes  all  aristocrats  to  tremble." 
At  the  Jacobin  Club  he  once  boasted  of  having  "  those  features 
which  characterize  the  face  of  a  freeman."  In  his  hour  of 
trial,  turning  to  the  jurors  of  the  revolutionary  tribunal,  he 
proudly  asks,  "Have  I  the  face  of  a  hypocrite?  "  And  in 
his  supreme  moment  on  the  scaffold,  he  says  to  the  execu- 
tioners, '•  Show  my  head  to  the  people  :  it  is  good  to  look 
at." 

In  17S0  he  comes  to  Paris  to  enter  the  office  of  a  notary, 
as  pupil.  Being  asked  to  give  a  sample  of  his  handwriting,  he 
frankly  answers,  "  I  have  not  come  here  to  be  a  copyist,"  and 
the  notary  rather  seems  to  like  this  self-esteem  in  his  pupil. 
A  story  is  told  of  him,  dating  from  this  period  :  Once,  when 
bathing  in  the  Seine,  and  seeing  tlie  towers  of  the  Bastille 
looming  up  a  little  way  off,  he  cried  out  in  angry  tones, 
"When  will  these  walls  come  down?  Oh,  how  I  should 
like  to  contribute  a  good  stroke  with  a  pickaxe  !  " 

In  1787,  when  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  becomes  an 
advocate.  Three  years  thereafter  he  marries  Mademoiselle 
Charpentier,  the  daughter  of  a  controller  of  revenue-col- 
lectors, received  with  her  a  dowry  of  forty  thousand  francs, 
with  which  sum,  and  about  a  similar  amount  in  addition  which 
he  had  inherited  from  his  deceased  father,  he  buys  the  post 


28  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

of  a  king's  counsellor,  for  previous  to  the  Revolution  all  places 
of  advocature  and  magistracy  were  bought  and  sold. 

This  is  the  position  we  find  him  in,  and  his  age  thirty, 
when  the  Revolution  breaks  out.  He  lives  in  rigid  economy, 
but  decently,  in  small  apartments  near  his  father-in-law,  in 
the  Cour  de  Commerce,  a  narrow  street  on  the  south  side 
of  the  Seine,  in  that  district  of  the  Cordehers  which  is  to  be 
so  well  known  later  on  in  the  Revolution.  He  has  but  a 
few,  but  very  intimate  friends,  among  members  of  the  bar 
and  literary  men,  who  visit  each  other  very  much.  He  is  a 
most  excellent  family-man,  and  loves  his  wife  dearly,  who  in 
return  loves  him,  finds  him  not  at  all  ugly,  and  has  a  firm 
belief  in  his  powers  and  future  when  no  one  else  has. 

He  is  described  at  that  time  as  a  Hercules  in  build,  needing 
a  well-turned-down  collar  in  which  to  move  his  bull-neck ; 
his  bodily  figure  stately  as  well  as  massive,  and  himself  more 
careful  in  his  dress  than  has  been  generally  thought.  His 
voice  is  powerful,  and  his  gestures  are  bold.  He  is  hot- 
tempered,  easily  moved  to  anger,  terrible  to  an  adversary, 
but  easy  also  to  conciliate. 

It  is  shameful,  that,  on  the  word  of  a  woman  like  Madame 
Roland,  the  notion  should  have  got  currency  that  Danton 
was  illiterate  !  he  whom  we  have  seen  as  a  king's  coun- 
sellor ;  he  whom  we  now  know  to  have  been  counsel  to  a 
secretary  of  justice,  M.  Barentin,  who  thought  so  well  of 
him  that  he  twice  offered  him  the  position  of  secretary 
of  seals,  which  offer  he  twice  refused,  and  who  repeatedly 
consulted  him  on  most  important  public  measures,  aiid  once 
re(]uested  of  him  and  obtained  from  him  a  memorandum  as 
to  the  most  urgent  reforms  to  be  laid  before  the  king  ! 

And  we  have  further  evidence.  On  the  death  of  Danton's 
first  wife,  in  February,  1793,  an  inventory  was,  according 
to  i'Vench  law,  taken  of  his  possessions.  This  inventory 
shows,  that,  while  he  then  had  a  lot  of  silvcr-i)late  valued  at 


1789.1  DANTO.Y'S   YOUTH.  29 

twelve  hundretl  and  two  francs,  he  possessed,  on  the  otlier 
hand,  a  library  composed  of  more  than  one  hundred  works, 
many  composed  of  several  volumes,  valued  at  sixteen  hun- 
dred francs  more  than  the  silver-plate.  Among  the  books 
we  find  the  works  of  Plutarch  in  English,  of  Montesquieu, 
of  Montaigne,  of  Voltaire,  of  Rabelais,  of  Buffon,  of  Dr. 
Johnson  in  Englisli,  of  Rousseau,  Robertson's  History  of 
America  in  English,  the  whole  Encyclopccdia,  Adam  Smith's 
WcaltJi  of  Nations  in  English,  etc. 

From  this  we  can  see  that  Danton  read  English,  and, 
indeed,  preferred  English  translations  of  the  classics.  We 
know  he  read  Italian  works  in  the  original ;  we  know  that 
when,  a  second  time,  he  had  caught  a  fever  from  bathing, 
he,  wliile  convalescing,  read  all  the  volumes  of  the  Ency- 
clopccdia  through  ;  we  know  he  studied  Montesquieu  par- 
ticularly, from  whose  "  Spirit  of  Laws "  he  often  quoted ; 
he  read  all  the  works  of  Rousseau,  of  course,  as  everybody 
did ;  Beccaria's  Crimes  and  Punishments,  which  appeared 
just  before  the  Revolution,  and  which  was  soon  to  reform 
the  criminal  legislation  of  the  civilized  world,  he  studied 
with  care. 

At  the  age  of  thirty,  Danton  then  really  stood  at  the  sum- 
mit of  the  knowledge  of  his  age.  He  had  drunk  deeply 
tlie  lessons  from  the  revolutionary  books  of  his  age.  The 
Revolution  had  matured  in  his  brain,  as  in  the  brains  of  the 
reading  portion  of  his  contemporaries,  and  it  was  now  ready 
to  be  born.  That  Danton  was  aware  of  this,  seems  evident 
from  the  answer  he  gave  to  M.  Barentin,  when  offering  him 
office  for  the  second  time  :  "  I  thank  you,  but  the  state  of 
])olitics  has  changed  entirely.  We  are  no  longer  in  the 
period  of  modest  reforms  ;  they  who  refused  these,  refused 
their  own  salvation.  Notv  we  are  at  the  daivn  of  a  revolu- 
tion r 

But  that  he  was  going  to  be  such  an  important  actor  was 


30  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1748- 

hiddcii  from  everybody's  eyes,  and  so  it  was,  indeed,  with 
all  the  other  revolutionary  actors.  Sieyes,  Mirabeau,  Ver- 
gniaud,  Guadet,  Roland,  Robespierre,  Carnot,  Danton,  were 
hidden  in  a  night  of  obscurity,  and  that,  perhaps,  saved 
them  for  their  days  of  action. 

*         *         * 

Do  not  let  us  forget,  however,  that  the  middle  classes 
were  ready  too,  —  the  rich  middle  classes  that  are  to  be 
the  bearers  of  the  new  ideas  and  rulers  of  the  new, ^  era, 
because  they  are  the  only  part  of  the  masses  as  yet  suf- 
ficiently developed.  They  had  become  rich,  proud,  and 
powerful,  compared  to  the  "  lower  classes,"  from  the  time 
Colbert  had,  under  Louis  XIV.,  worked  for  them  sixteen 
hours  a  day  during  twenty-two  years,  with  his  tariffs,  his 
custom-house  regulations,  and  his  commercial  negotiations. 
But  just  as  powerful  as  they  were  in  regard  to  the  masses, 
just  as  impotent  were  they  in  regard  to  nobles  and  clergy, 
who  openly  and  on  every  occasion  insulted  them. 

An  attempt  had  already  been  made  to  effect  the  Revolu- 
tion from  above.  Turgot  became  minister  shorUy  after 
Louis'  accession.  It  was  the  philosophers,  the  economists, 
come  to  power,  convinced  that  now  their  ideas  were  to 
receive  a  brilliant  application.  Turgot,  with  the  assistance 
of  Malesherbes,  immediately  attempted  to  give  the  middle 
classes  freer  movement  by  a  decisive  blow :  the  principle 
of  free  competition  was  to  govern  in  industry  and  commerce. 
The  Paris  "  Parliament  "  —  the  magistracy  was  so  called  in 
France  —  was  compelled  to  register  a  decree  for  the  free 
circulation  of  grain,  and  also  an  edict  abolishing  all  cor- 
porations and  guilds.  That  was  on  the  12th  of  March, 
1776,  the  year  of  publication  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations. 
On  that  day,  Louis  Blanc  tells  us,  the  workmen  of  Paris  left 
their  masters  in  crowds,  and  celebrated  their  emancipation 
by   processions    through   the   streets,  and    bancjucts   in   the 


1789.]  JUNE  SEVENTEENTH.  3 1 

evening.  Ah,  the  time  came  when  they  were  undeceived,  and 
learned  that  "  free  competition  "  did  not  at  all  mean  freedom 
for  them  !  But  their  masters  were  not  yet  to  be  emanci- 
pated either,  for  there  immediately  was  a  re-action.  Turgot 
fell  from  power,  and  the  guilds  and  all  other  restrictions 
were  left  as  before.  Now  we  can  see  how  short-sighted 
the  ruling  powers  were  ;  how  much  better  it  would  have 
been  for  them  and  France  if  the  Revolution  could  have  been 
carried  out  from  above.  But  then,  how  much  more 

short-sighted  are  not  our  ruling  classes,  who  scorn  even  to 
listen  to  suggestions  made  in  our  days  for  inaugurating  the 
Coming  Revolution  from  above  ! 

So  the  middle  classes  of  France  were  still  waiting,  but 
ready. 

The  American  war  gave  a  mighty  push  to  events.  Curi- 
ously enough,  it  is  the  "  Parliaments  "  that  first  demand  tlie 
assembling  of  the  States-  General ;  then  everybody  demands 
them.  Only  "  Anglomania  "  can  explain  this  universal  cry 
for  them  ;  for  though  the  "  States-General  "  had  met  several 
times  before  in  French  history,  and  at  crises  too,  the  last 
time  they  assembled  had  been  a  hundred  and  seventy-five 
years  before,  and  they  never  had  possessed  a  trace  of 
political  significance.  Saint-Simon  —  not  the  reformer,  but 
tlie  historian  of  Louis  XIV.  —  contemptuously  says,  "  The 
States-General  are  never  seriously  effective  ;  verba,  voces ! 
(words,  voices  !),  nothing  more.  But  they  are  an  expedient 
for  canonizing  bankruptcy,  at  once  innocent,  agreeable,  and 
easy." 

There  is,  by  the  way,  a  letter  from  Mirabeau,  written  to 
a  friend  at  Strasbourg  about  this  time,  which  has  not  been 
long  known,  in  which  he  says,  "  Let  us  not  undertake  too 
much.  Let  us  insist  on  our  consent  to  all  taxes  and  loans, 
civil  liberty,  and  periodical  assemblies,  as  the  three  capital 
points.     The  rest  will  come  in  its  own  good  time.     And 


32  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [Mays, 

now  I  shall  give  my  private  thoughts  to  you  in  confulcnce  : 
War  to  all  privileges  and  privileged  parties,  —  that  is  my 
motto.  That  is  why  I  am  personally  in  favor  of  monarchy. 
That  would  be  a  nice  republic  we  should  have,  composed 
of  all  the  powerful  and  rich  who  now  are  on  top  of  us  ! 
Why,  it  would  be  the  most  acute  tyranny  !  The  members 
should  be  numerous.  Eight  hundred  members  are  easier 
to  lead  than  three  hundred,  and  there  laill  always  be  some 
dexterous  persons  to  lead  the  herd,  however  large  it  is.". 

At  last  the  King  calls  the  States-General  together.  Rep- 
resentatives of  the  three  orders.  Nobility,  Clergy,  and  Com- 
mons, are  to  meet  at  Versailles  in  May,  1789.  By  an 
additional  decree  it  is  ordered  that  the  Third  Estate,  the 
Commons,  are  to  have  twice  as  many  representatives  as 
the  other  orders  ;  they  are  to  be  elected  by  what  is  virtually 
universal  suffrage.  This  additional  decree  is  published 
New  Year's  Day,  1 789,  and  the  Parisians  illuminate  their 
houses  in  consequence,  as  after  a  victory.  It  was  the  first 
time  in  history  that  a  large  nation,  with  twenty-five  million 
people,  had  tried  such  an  experiment.  No  wonder  that 
the  next  months  witnessed  a  great  deal  of  excitement  in 
France. 

But  is  it  not  remarkable  to  observe  how,  in  spite  of  all 
excitement,  the  assemblies  of  the  Third  Estate  seem  every- 
where to  be  of  one  mind  and  one  heart?  Everywhere  the 
same  proceedings  :  cahiers,  or  "  ))latforms  "  as  we  call  them 
in  America,  are  drawn  up,  and  these  eahiers  are  all  of 
the  same  tenor  ;  all  re-eeho  the  demands  of  the  revolutionary 
7uriters  mentioned  above  :  — 

"The  sovereignty  resides  in  the  peoj)le,  and  sliould  be 
exercised  only  by  the  nation's  representatives,  in  accord 
with  the  King. 

"  We  demand  a  constitution  and  laws,  to  be  made  and 
adojjted  by  the  States-General,  who  also  should  have  the 


.789.1  JUNE  SEVENTEENTH.  33 

exclusive  liijlil  to  vole  tlie  taxes  anil  control  the  national 
expenditures. 

"  The  agents  of  the  executive  power  must  be  made 
responsible. 

"  The  privileges  of  nobility  and  clergy  should  be  abolished. 

"  Serfdom  should  be  abolished. 

"  All  citizens  to  be  eligible  to  all  public  employments. 

"  'I'he  procedure  of  courts  of  justice  should  be  reformed, 
the  purchase  and  sale  of  all  law-offices  abolished,  and  justice 
to  be  gratuitous  ;  also  exceptional  jurisdictions  abolished. 

"  The  press  should  be  free,  and  each  left  to  practise  what- 
ever religion  he  pleases. 

*^  Industry  and  commerce  should  be  entirely  free  .'^ 

These  were  the  propositions  that  the  revolutionary  writers 
had  made  the  middle  classes  believe,  and  believe  in  like  a 
veritable  gospel ;  they  had  made  them  the  convictions  of  the 
middle  classes,  for  which  these  were  ready  to  sacrifice  every 
thing  and  everybody,  themselves  included,  if  need  be. 

The  States-General  met  the  5th  of  May,  1789.  All  his- 
torians start  the  French  Revolution  from  that  date.  There 
is  not  the  slightest  reason  for  this.  That  meeting  was  merely 
an  incident  in  the  course  of  events,  like  so  many  other  inci- 
dents. The  Revolution  came  about,  was  born,  in  a  moment 
—  which  is  soon  approaching ;  but  if  we  are  to  say  when 
its  preparation  commenced,  then  the  year  1748  is  the  date. 

The  three  orders  go  each  to  its  different  hall  of  assembling, 
but  tlie  Third  Estate,  the  Commons,  refuse  to  do  any  business 
at  all  ;  they  even  refuse  to  open  letters  addressed  to  "  the 
Third  Estate."  They  merely  say,  "  We  are  waiting  to  have 
the  two  other  orders  come  to  us,  in  order  that  we  may  form 
one  assembly ; "  and  they  repeatedly  notify  Nobility  and 
Clergy  to  that  effect.  But  these  will  not  come.  The  Com- 
mons remain  doggedly  obstinate.  The  Paris  electors  have 
been  very  dilatory  in  electing  their  repfesentatives ;  at  last  it 


34  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [June  17, 

is  (lone,  anil  on  tlie  251]:  of  May  tlie  twenty  Parisian  deputies, 
headed  by  Bailly  and  Sieyes,  enter  the  hall  of  the  Commons. 
The  Commons  still  wait;  but  finally,  on  June  10,  their  pa- 
tience is  at  an  end.  Then,  among  an  immense  concourse 
of  spectators,  and  in  the  midst  of  a  profound  silence,  rises 
Abbd  Sieyes,  of  the  Parisian  delegation,  to  become  the 
accoucheur  of  tlie  Revolution.  He  makes  the  motion  that 
final  summons  be  addressed  to  the  other  orders  to  the  effect 
that  the  calling  of  the  bailiwicks  will  commence  in  ap  hour. 
Adopted.  After  the  lapse  of  the  hour  the  Commons  com- 
mence the  verification  of  their  powers  \  and  in  this  business 
they  are  engaged  the  following  days,  during  which  several 
of  the  lower  clergy  enter  to  take  their  place  among  them. 
Finally,  on  June  ly,  Sieyes,  again,  proposes  fhat  they  constitute 
themselves  the  national  assembly,  and  that  decisive  step  is 
adopted  by  491  against  90.  They  then  elect  Bailly  president, 
and  immediately  thereafter  proceed  to  an  act  of  sovereignty, 
by  decreeing  that  no  taxes  be  valid  in  the  future  without 
their  consent. 

Now  THE  Revolution  is  born. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  of  historians  to  call  Mirabeau  the 
"  father,"  the  "  maker,"  of  the  French  Revolution.  In  truth 
no  individual  was  its  father ;  but  if  anybody,  it  was  cer- 
tainly not  iVIirabeau,  but  Sieyes.  Mirabeau  opposed  himself 
to  the  title  of  "  National  Assembly,"  precisely  because  the 
two  other  orders  were  not  present ;  he  wanted  the  Commons 
to  call  themselves,  instead,  the  "  Representatives  of  the 
French  People."  It  would  be  interesting  to  know  if  he  was 
among  the  ninety  who  voted  "  no,"  but  I  have  not  been 
able  to  ascertain  this.  But  this  we  know,  —  that  on  his  death- 
bed Mirabeau  said  to  the  Genevese  Dumont :  "O  my  friend  ! 
how  right  we  were  when  we  endeavored,  from  the  first,  to 
prevent  the  Commons  from  declaring  themselves  the  Na- 


1789.]  "CA  IRA.r'  35 

tioiial  Assembly  !  It  is  lliis  that  }ias  been  /he  source  of  all 
our  evils.  From  the  moment  they  carried  that  victory,  tliey 
liave  never  ceased  to  show  themselves  unworthy  of  it." 

The  court  tries  all  manner  of  means  to  frighten  the 
National  Assembly  back  from  the  stand  they  have  taken,  — 
excludes  them  from  their  own  hall,  and  compels  them  to 
take  refuge  first  in  a  tennis-court  (where  they  take  their 
celebrated  oath  to  stick  together),  then  in  the  Church  of  St. 
Louis  ;  and  finally  the  King,  in  royal  session,  on  June  23, 
commands  them  to  recede.     But  all  in  vain. 

It  is  at  this  royal  session  that  an  incident  occurs  that  has 
thrown  a  good  deal  of  false  glamour  around  Mirabeau.  The 
King  has  left ;  so  have  the  nobles  and  most  of  the  clergy  ;  the 
Commons,  "  the  National  Assembly,"  remain,  —  when  enters 
the  King's  usher,  who  reminds  them  of  the  King's  command. 
Then  Mirabeau  haughtily  replies,  "  We  are  here  by  the  peo- 
ple's will,  and  nothing  but  bayonets  shall  make  us  leave." 
The  fact  is,  no  one  thought  of  leaving ;  and  Bailly,  the  presi- 
dent, was  just  on  the  point  of  saying  so. 

Two  days  after  the  clergy  give  in ;  and  on  June  2  7  the 
nobility,  by  command  of  the  King,  likewise  join  the  As- 
sembly. 

*         *         * 

Now  the  middle  classes  of  France,  being  in  a  clear  ma- 
jority of  the  National  Assembly,  are  in  supreme  power,  and 
they  know  its  value.  They  know  —  and  they  have  left  it  to 
us  as  an  important  lesson  —  that  a  revolutionary  body  vnist 
^i^el  hold  of  political  poiuer  as  an  instrument,  or  else  they 
will  get  into  collision  with  it  as  an  obstacle. 

The  people  cried,  "  The  Revolution  is  finished  ;  it  is  the 
work  of  the  philoso])hers,  and  it  has  not  cost  a  drop  of 
blootl."  Our  historians  have  pitied  these  people 

their  near-sightedness.  Yet  it  is  the  historians  that  are  near- 
sighted.    Tlie  people  were  right. 


36  THE  RISING  GENERATION.  [1789. 

The  Revolution  w.as  accojnpUshcii,  and  not  a  blow  had 
been  struck,  not  a  particle  of  violence  committed,  so  faz". 
The  middle  classes  were  in  political  power,  and  tliey  knew 
that  the  rest  would  follow  as  a  matter  of  course. 

It  did  follow  very  soon  after,  as  a  matter  of  course. 

And  the  people  shouted  for  joy.  They  even  called  out 
the  Queen,  whom  they  hated ;  she  appeared  on  the  balcony, 
and  showed  them  the  dauphin. 

The  middle  classes  can  now  commence  singing  ///</>  revo- 
lutionary song :  — 

"  Ah,  9a  ira,  9a  ira,  9a  ira  I 
La  liberty  s'etablira 
Malgre  les  tyrans;  tout  reussira." 

("  It  goes  !     It  gets  on  splendidly ! 
Liberty  will  be  established 
In  spite  of  tyrants ;  all  will  succeed.") 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE   MIDDLE-CLASS    REGIME. 

June  37,  1789,  to  Sept.  30,  1791. 

"  Von,  flutocrats  !  ivcre  apfiointed  to  guard  against  gluts,  appointed  to  preside 
over  the  distrihuiion  and  apportionment  of  wages  /or  work  done,  that  our 
human  laws  be  emblems  of  God's  laws."  —  Carlyle. 

The  Counter-Revolution.  —  Aug.  4.  —  The  Constitution  OF'91.— 
Danton  the  First  Republican.  —  The  Doings  of  the  French 
Bourgeoisie. 

BUT  what  about  the  violence,  the  massacres,  the  Terror? 
Ah  !  they  do  not  belong  to  the  Revolution ;  they, 
indeed,  are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  Revolution,  how- 
ever much  historians  persist  in  including  them,  and  in  even 
making  the  French  Revolution  principally  consist  in  them. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  these  horrors  were  the  natural  outcome 
of  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  old  powers  to  overthrow  the  new 
regime,  and  bring  back  the  old  regime,  —  of  the  coiiiiter- 
Revolution  to  undo  the  Revolution.  Historians  are  right  in 
insisting  upon  that  something  failed,  but  it  was  the  counter- 
Revolution  that  miserably  failed  at  every  step  it  took. 

Just  here  comes  in  a  notable  difference  between  England 
and  France.  Charles,  undoubtedly,  fought  personally  till 
the  very  last  ditch,  and  paid  the  penalty  for  his  stubborn- 
ness;  but  the  nobility  gave  way  as  soon  as  the  danger-jmint 
was  reached,  and  ever  since  have  done  so.  This,  indeed, 
has  become  such  a  characteristic  of  the  British  aristocracy, 
that  it  is  constantly  relied  upon  by  the  people  ;  and  woe  if 
this  reliance  shall  ever  prove  false  ! 

37 


38  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.        [June  27. 

Ill  the  I'higlish  Revolution  the  nobility  gave  way,  and  allied 
themselves  with  the  new-comers  in  a  joint  empire.  The 
aristocracy  said,  in  effect,  to  the  rich  manufacturers  and 
merchants,  "  We  will  divide  our  power  with  you  ;  "  and  so 
they  became,  jointly,  pretty  severe  taskmasters  to  the  toiling 
masses.  This  prudent  conduct  on  the  part  of  the  British 
nobility  is  the  reason  why  to-day  we  find  tlie  anomaly  in 
(ireat  Britain  of  the  lands  in  the  hands  of  the  few,  and  of 
the  survival  of  so  many  other  feudal  features. 

Such  was  the  beginning  of  the  political  power  of  the  rich 
middle  classes  of  England.  They  have  gone  on  consolidat- 
ing all  the  groups  of  well-to-do  people  of  former  periods,  — 
of  people  of  property,  such  as  country  squires,  big  farmers, 
capitalists,  shopkeepers,  and  professional  men,  —  and  made 
them  all  so  conscious  of  their  interdependence,  that  they 
very  naturally  have  come  to  look  upon  those  with  whom 
they  have  no  social  intercourse  as  "  the  lower  classes,"  who 
seem  to  be  there  only  to  be  used  as  instruments  for  their 
own  well-being. 

These  same  classes  have,  on  the  other  hand,  now  acquired 
such  complete  dominion,  that  (since  large  bodies  always 
attract  and  absorb  smaller  ones)  they  have  absolutely  swal- 
lowed up  the  upper  classes,  and  matle  them  mere  adjuncts 
to  themselves. 

The  nobility  in  England  is  now  a  part  of  the  middle  classes  ; 
is,  like  them,  engaged  in  "  business,"  one  way  or  another, 
and  would  be  of  no  importance  without  such  business.  This 
transition  has  been  effected  so  much  the  more  easily,  as  the 
English  aristocracy  never  formed  a  class  apart,  as  in  France ; 
that  is  to  say,  the  heads  alone  of  the  noble  families  have 
political  privileges,  while  all  their  other  members  are  simple 
"  commoners." 

I  have  no  doubt  that  this  slow,  i)caccful  way  of  i)assing 
from  feudal  times  over  into  our  motlern  era,  this  slow  way  of 


lySo-l  THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION.  39 

making  what  is,  in  truth,  the  Ihitish  Constitution,  has,  on 
the  whole,  been  a  great  blessing  to  the  British  people. 

But  in  France  it  was  quite  otherwise.  Its  Revolution  was 
so  dramatic,  precisely  because  its  ruling  powers  had  not  sense 
or  inclination  to  abdicate  or  divide  their  power  when  the 
time  came  for  it.     It  had  to  be  wrenched  from  them. 

Yet  I  am  not  sure  that  they  ought  to  be  very  much  blamed 
for  it.  This  disposition  of  theirs  was  certainly  a  very  unfor- 
tunate one  for  themselves  and  for  France ;  but  it  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  they  merely  obeyed  an  hereditary  instinct 
in  trying  to  save  the  Catholic  feudal  system,  which,  though  at 
the  time  anti-social,  was  in  their  eyes  the  only  anchor  of 
safety  for  their  cherished  principles,  interests,  and  institu- 
tions. They  were  simply  in\'eterate  bigots ;  for  bigotry  is  in 
essence  an  incapacity  to  understand  the  law  of  development, 
ami  a  disposition  to  kick  against  it. 

But  this  furnishes  a  ready  answer  to  those  who  think  that 
the  Revolution  was  wicked  and  sinful.  AVhy,  if  any  thing  was 
7vickcd  and  "  sinful,"  it  was  certainly  the  counter- Revolution, 
and  not  the  Revolution.  The  latter  may  have  possessed  some 
ignoljle  features.  They  who  led  it  and  tliey  who  prepared  it 
may,  many  of  them,  have  been  very  unlovely  characters,  — 
tluit  I  do  not  deny.  The  plutocrats  certainly  contributed  to 
the  violence  by  their  rapacity  and  selfishness,  the  masses  did 
liy  their  suspicion  and  cruelty.  But  I  insist  on  this  :  that  the 
Revolution  did  the  will  of  the  Intelligence  that  directs  hu- 
man events.  The  counter-Revolution  opposed  tliat  will :  that 
made  it  "  sinful  "  in  a  truly  religious  sense  ;  and  the  further 
fact  that  this  opposition  was  essentially  egoistic,  made  it 
wicked. 

This  resistance  by  the  re-actionary  forces  of  France  was  so 
terrific,  violating  without  scruple  one  of  the  most  sacred  of 
the  sentiments  of  that  day,  —  patriotism,  —  that  it  required 
immense,  herculean  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  patriots  to  over- 


40  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REG/ME.        [July  14, 

come  it.  Hence  the  delirium,  the  hysterics  of  the  Parisians. 
Hence  the  massacres.     Henck  the  Terror. 

Note  this  other  imj)ortant  point,  —  that  precisely  this 
terrific  resistance  of  the  counter- Revolution,  together  with  its 
complete  failure,  did  immensely  set  in  relief  the  success  of 
the  Revolution.  The  resistance  had  very  much  the  same 
effect  that  enclosure  has  on  powder :  it  made  the  Revolution 
march  so  much  the  quicker,  and  its  victories  so  much  the 
more  decisive.  This,  precisely,  enabled  France  to  reach  in 
a  few  years  the  stage  which  it  had  taken  Great  Britain  a 
century  and  a  half  to  attain,  and  even  to  go  beyond  it. 

By  joining  the  two  ideas,  —  of  the  Revolution  as  the  de- 
cree of  evolution,  and  of  the  counter- Revolution  as  opposing 
this  decree,  —  we  get  a  key  to  the  totality  of  those  events 
known  as  "  the  French  Revolution."  To  overlook  the  coun- 
ter-Revolution  entirely  is  like  a  sculptor  who  should  make, 
instead  of  two  fighting  gladiators,  only  one  :  that  one,  instead 
of  being  a  gladiator,  straining  every  nerve  for  a  purpose, 
would  apjjcar  simply  a  lunatic  ;  and  that  is,  indeed,  what 
historians  have  made  the  French  people  out  to  be. 

We  meet  with  the  counter- Revolution  at  the  very  threshold. 
The  exuberant  tone  of  joy,  confidence,  and  hopefulness,  yes, 
the  modesty  of  the  people,  on  all  occasions  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Revolution,  are  responded  to  by  the  court  by  the  very 
opposite  feelings. 

The  first  chapter  clsoed  with  the  people  cheering  the 
Queen,  and  the  Queen  smiling  on  the  people  ;  but  at  that 
very  moment  she  did  another  thing  which  the  people  did 
not  see,  —  she  sent  for  troops. 

It  closed  with  the  Nobility  joining  the  National  Assembly 
at  the  express  command  of  the  court.  The  very  next  morn- 
ing the  court  repented,  aiul  appealed  to  force.  They  sur- 
rounded first  llie  National  Assembly,  and  then  Paris,  with 
foreign  troojjs,  —  Swiss,  Germans,  and  Tyrolese.     This  natu- 


1789.]  THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION.  41 

rally  excited  in  everybody  a  suspicion  tliat  the  court  intended 
to  dissolve  the  Assembly,  overawe  Paris,  and  with  one  blow 
restore  the  old  order  of  things,  as  now  we  know  were,  in 
fact,  its  intentions. 

The  response  to  this  threat  was  the  storming  of  the  Bas- 
tille by  the  people  of  Paris  on  the  14th  of  July,  the  day  which 
the  third  French  Republic  has  proclaimed  a  national  holi- 
day, and  now  for  a  good  many  years  has  celebrated  as  such. 

Oh,  well  may  the  French  well-to-do  middle  classes,  whose 
republic  this  third  French  Republic  is,  celebrate  the  day, 
for  it  set  the  seal  on  their  previous  victory.  They  have 
reaped  all  the  substantial  benefits  of  the  day,  and  yet  their 
personal  share  in  the  taking  of  the  Bastille  was  very  small. 
They  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  "  lower  classes," 
with  beating,  suffering,  hoping  hearts  in  their  bosoms,  were 
excellent  "  masses  "  wherewith  to  blow  down  Bastilles,  and 
so  they  egged  them  on.  But  one  thing  they  forgot, 

—  that  precisely  in  that  way  did  they  teach  these  masses 
their  strength  and  the  use  of  brute  force. 

Well,  the  Bastille  was  overthrown  in  broad  daylight,  just  as 
a  rock  is  buried  by  the  rolling  waves  of  the  ocean. 

But  the  spirit  of  the  plutocrats  was  odiously  displayed  right 
thereafter,  when  the  committee  of  citizens  appointed  to  pre- 
serve order,  and  who  had  appointed  Bailly  mayor  of  Paris, 
forbade  /he  poo?'  to  zvear  ihe  patriotic  cockade  under  pain  of 
arrest.  It  was  tlie  wedge  entering  for  the  first  time  between 
middle  classes  and  the  working-classes. 

Three  days  thereafter,  Louis,  who  fifteen  years  before  had 
been  crowned  king  by  the  grace  of  God,  now  suffered  him- 
self, in  a  hypocritic  flishion,  to  be  re-crowned  king  by  the 
grace  of  the  middle  classes.  After  hearing  mass  —  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  the  worst  —  he  arrived  from  Versailles  at  the 
l)arrier  of  Paris  at  three  in  the  afternoon,  drove  between  two 
lines  of  silent,  determined  men  to  the  Hotel  de  Ville   (the 


42  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.        [July  ,7, 

town-liall),  ascended  its  staircase  under  a  canopy  of  steel 
made  (after  tlie  manner  of  Free-Masons,  but  unfamiliar  to 
him)  by  swords  placed  crosswise,  received  from  the  hands 
of  Bailly,  the  mayor,  the  new  tricolor  national  cockade,  which 
he  placed  in. his  hat,  and  showed  himself  from  the  balcony 
to  the  crowd  below,  —  a  middle-class  king. 

Now  the  plutocrats,  the  French  bourgeoisie,  can  certainly 
sing  from  one  end  of  France  to  the  other,  ^^  Ali,  ga  iraf"  — 
"it  goes  merrily  !  " 

But  the  Queen,  on  going  to  meet  the  King  on  his  return  to 
Versailles,  and  seeing  the  national  cockade  still  in  his  hat, 
contemptuously  exclaims,  "  I  did  not  know  I  had  married  a 
plebeian."  And  princes  of  the  blood  flee  the  country  : 

this  is  the  beginning  of  what  will  be  known  as  the  Emigra- 
tion, the  most  sinister  form  of  the  counter- Revolution. 
Instead  of  bravely  staying  at  their  posts,  at  court,  in  the 
Assembly,  in  the  administrative  ofifices,  and,  since  they  will 
not  compromise  with  the  Revolution,  at  least  honestly  fight- 
ing it  out  amongst  themselves,  they  give  up  all  at  home, 
like  cowards,  to  call  on  the  hated  foreigners  for  assistance. 
*         *         * 

Since  the  foundation  of  the  new  regime  is  already  laid, 
the  crash  can  lunu  come :  the  feudal  system  can  now  be 
torn  down  with  safety,  and  with  ease  as  well. 

To  accomplish  this,  the  bouigeoisie  wrought,  further,  in 
the  raw  material  at  hand,  the  masses,  all  over  the  country. 
The  jieasants  were  set  in  motion,  fagots  in  hand,  with  wliich 
they  set  fire  to  the  castles  of  the  nobility  ;  not  so  much,  how- 
ever, with  the  intention  of  destroying  the  buildings  as  —  on 
the  admission  of  the  nobles  themselves  —  to  do  away  with 
the  title-deeds,  which  were  the  evidence  of  the  feudal  bur- 
dens resting  so  heavily  on  them  and  on  agriculture. 

This  violence  brought  on  the  unexampled  night  o{  Aug.  4. 
It  is  noteworthy  that  Miral)eau,  the  alleged  "  maker  "  of  the 


1789.]  AUGUST  FOURTH.  43 

Revolution,  did  not  contribute  any  thing  to  this  the  second 
step  in  the  great  change,  either.  He  was  absent ;  those 
present  turned  tlieir  eyes  in  the  direction  of  his  seat,  and, 
seeing  it  vacant,  wondered.  But  afterwards  he  who  had 
declared  his  motto  to  be  "  War  to  all  privileges  and  privi- 
leged," called  that  sitting  a  "  delirium  of  suicide." 

Yes,  it  was  a  delirium,  but  one  of  which,  to  some  extent, 
humanity  has  reason  to  be  proud.  For,  even  after  making 
every  allowance  for  the  fright  caused  by  the  agitation  of  the 
peasants,  there  were  certainly  some  noble  minds  who  that 
night  were  moved  by  the  great,  generous  ideas  of  the  century, 
and  gave  practical  proofs  of  it  by  great  sacrifices  —  principal 
among  these  the  first  speaker,  the  Duke  d'Aiguillon. 

I  sometimes  delight  in  fancying  another  picture,  —  one 
representing,  at  the  time  Garrison's  anti-slavery  agitation  was 
at  its  height,  some  of  the  slave-barons  of  the  Southern  States 
of  America,  in  a  similar  fit  of  patriotic  enthusiasm,  rising 
in  their  seats  in  Congress,  and  freely  relinquishing  slavery  ! 
What  sufferings  might  such  act  have  spared  to  themselves, 
their  class,  and  the  nation  ! 

For  here  in  that  most  memorable  of  sittings  of  which  the 
history  of  assemblies  has  preserved  a  remembrance,  which 
lasted  from  eight  in  the  evening  till  two  in  the  morning,  the 
representatives  of  the  privileged  classes  arose,  one  after  the 
other,  and  in  a  fever  of  generosity  renounced  one  privilege, 
one  riglit,  after  another:  one  the  pension  of  lohich  he  was  in 
receipt,  another  the  fees  to  which  he  was  en  ti tied  as  a  magis- 
trate;  some  absolutely  beggaring  themselves,  but  most  of  them, 
undoubtedly,  doing,  from  what  was  real  compulsion,  that 
which  was  much  easier,  —  donating  to  the  nation  other  peo- 
])le's  property.  The  fanatical  resistance,  then,  which 

has  been  spoken  of  above,  concerned  not  so  much  their 
personal  privileges,  for  that  night  there  was  no  discussion, 
and  no  need  for  any ;  the  prevailing  enthusiasm  was  born 


44  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  I^EGLIfE.         [Aug.  4, 

of  a  profound  conviction  that  tlie  moment  had  come  to 
put  an  end  to  these  :  it  was  the  aboHtion  of  the  privileges 
of  their  monarchy  and  their  church,  it  was  the  supremacy  of 
the  middle  classes,  that  aroused  their  unreasoning  opposition. 

And  so,  when  the  session  closed,  they  had  abolished  all 
the  feudal  burdens  that  rested  on  the  peasants  and  on  agri- 
culture, as  the  tillies,  the  duty  of  the  latter  to  grind  their 
corn  at  their  landlords'  mill,  the  duty,  to  work  on  tlie  high- 
ways, the  right  of  the  chase,  etc. ;  furthermore,  the  guilds 
and  all  burdens  on  industry,  including  the  provincial  custom- 
houses ;  then  inequalities  in  taxation,  the  purchase  and  sale 
of  judicial  offices,  and  many  other  ancient  abuses. 

My  readers,  aware  that  in  our  Legislatures  a  bill  must  be 
read  a  first,  second,  and  third  time  before  it  can  become  a 
law,  may  ask  in  wonder  how  all  these  changes  could  possibly 
be  accomplished  in  one  short  session.  They  must  then 
know  that  in  these  first  French  assemblies  all  artificial  bar- 
riers on  legislation  were  unknown.  A  member  had  only, 
as  in  this  session  of  the  4th  of  August,  to  make  a  motion 
embodying  a  principle,  and  have  it,  as  here,  adopted  by 
acclamation.  To  be  sure,  the  details  had  then  to  be  worked 
out  afterwards,  but  that  was  more  particularly  the  work  of 
committees ;  while  the  submission  of  the  finished  bill  to  the 
Assembly,  and  adoption  by  it,  were  often  but  mere  forms, 
though  it,  of  course,  took  time,  and  therefore  it  lasted  many 
months  before  the  measures  of  that  celebrated  night  were 
finally  realized.  It  is  important  to  bear  the  above  in  mintl, 
in  ortler  to  understand  how,  later  on,  Danton  was  able,  by  a 
simjjle  motion,  to  have  adopted  the  stern  and  far-reaching 
revolutionary  measures  of  which  he  became  the  author. 

When  the  French  people  awoke  the  next  morning,  they 
really  found  themselves  in  a  perfectly  new  society.  Individ- 
7/(1 /ism  7oas  >ifl7ci  frimiipliaiit.  But  let  me  again  insist  on 
this,  —  for  it  contains  a  most  important  lesson  for  us,  —  that 


1789.1  AUGUST  FOURTH.  45 

the  old  system  fell  when  it  was  fully  ripe,  and  when,  so  to 
say,  it  had  to  fall  of  itself,  and  not  before  the  foundation 
of  the  new  system  had  been  laid.  The  philosopher 

Quinet,  by  the  way,  has  curious  ideas  on  this  subject.  He 
says,  "If  Frenchmen  had  simply  wished  for  material  im- 
provement and  civil  equality,  the  Revolution  would  have 
ended  here.  But  what  I  most  admire  is  the  small  impres- 
sion these  sacrifices  made  on  people's  minds.  I  deem  it 
to  the  eternal  honor  of  the  men  of  '89  that  they  were  not 
satisfied  with  these  things,  if  liberty  were  not  addedP 

Why,  what  more  "  liberty  "  did  they  want,  or  could  they 
have  ?  Here  the  people's  representatives  were  making  the 
most  radical  changes,  according  to  their  own  sweet  will,  and 
taking  the  king's  consent  for  granted,  or  —  immaterial  ! 

As  to  the  "  small  impression  on  the  people's  mind,"  let  us 
see.     Whom  did  these  changes  benefit? 

First,  the  peasants  were  undoubtedly  benefited.  The 
shackles  were  struck  from  French  agriculture  by  its  being 
relieved  from  the  terribly  oppressive  feudal  burdens,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  it  attained,  at  a  bound  as  it  were,  a  most 
remarkable  development,  justifying  all  the  Encyclopajdists 
liad  claimed  and  foretold.  Further,  the  equalization  of  taxa- 
tion was  an  immense  boon  to  the  peasants,  who  hitherto  had 
paid  the  by  far  largest  portion  of  the  taxes.  These  were  great 
benefits,  but  these  were  all  the  benefits  the  peasants  derived 
from  the  Revolution,  and,  mark,  those  peasants  only  who 
possessed  some  land. 

Next,  industry  was  greatly  benefited.  For  the  night  of 
.'\ug.  4  realized  all  the  economic  demands  made  by  the 
writers  of  the  Encyclopczdia  ;  to  wit,  freedom  of  action,  free- 
dom of  competition,  and  unrestricted  private  enterprise  : 
and  the  consequence  was,  that  industry,  likewise,  attained  a 
steadily  growing  development. 

But  this  benefited  only  the  middle  classes ;  that  is  to  say, 


46  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.         [Aug.  4. 

only  those  who  owned  raw  materials  and  means  of  produc- 
tion. But  the  masses,  the  poor,  the  workers  who  possessed 
nothing  but  their  labor?  They,  whether  in  town  or  country, 
were  not  benefited  at  all. 

True,  they  now  became  free  as  to  their  persons  and  their 
actions ;  as  far  as  the  bom-gcoisic  had  secured  that  much  of 
liberty  for  them,  it  represented  the  whole  people,  and  had 
raised  the  masses  with  itself.  But  was  this  done  from  sym- 
pathy with  the  masses?  Not  at  all.  The  plutocrats  had 
done  it  because  it  was  absolutely  essential  to  themselves  as 
a  class ;  because  the  new  mode  of  industry  and  agriculture 
required  that  workmen  and  laborers  should  be  able  to  migrate 
from  places  where  their  labor  was  not  wanted,  to  places  where 
it  was.  How  far  the  interests  of  the  masses  were 

from  the  minds  of  the  boiirgeokie,  is  shown  by  the  fact,  that 
when,  during  the  same  sitting  of  Aug.  4,  Malouet,  moved  by 
an  inspiration  that  should  honor  his  memory,  entreated  his 
colleagues  to  consider  the  lot  of  the  laboring  classes,  and 
establish  workshops  for  those  who  were  out  of  work,  a  general 
murmur  arose,  and  —  they  passed  on  to  other  matters. 

On  the  one  hand,  how  much  their  own  interests  were 
present  to  their  minds,  is  shown  in  a  striking  manner  by 
the  subject  of  the  tithes.  There  was  hardly  any  thing  that 
pressed  so  heavily  on  agriculture  as  these  tithes,  and  there- 
fore one  of  the  most  important  achievements  of  Aug.  4 
had  been  their  abolition,  in  principle,  but  against  a  ransojn. 
A  few  days  after,  a  bill  with  the  details  worked  out  is  pre- 
sented to  the  Assembly  for  its  sanction,  which  bill  al)olished 
the  tithes,  without  any  compensation  whatsoever.  Then 
Abb6  Sieyes  stood  up  and  did  just  the  right  thing.  He  ob- 
jected to  it  as  different  in  principle  from  what  was  resolved 
the  other  night.  He  pointed  out  that  these  tithes  had  been 
levied  to  afford  a  living  to  the  lower  clergy,  and,  to  a  very 
large  extent,  to  support  the  i)Oor ;  that,  indeed,  the  tithes 


1789.1  AUGUST  FOURTH.  47 

7t'(7v  tlic  only  poor-Jitnds  in  France.  He  insisted,  with  much 
energy,  tliat  to  abolish  the  tithes,  without  compensation, 
would  be  robbing  the  poor,  and  making  a  gift  outright  to 
proprietors,  who  had  not  the  least  equitable  title  to  be  with 
one  stroke  relieved  from  paying  them.  No  matter  ! 

Let  the  poor  be  robbed,  said  the  Assembly,  virtually,  in 
ordering  that  a  splendid  gift  of  a  yearly  revenue  of  twenty- 
five  million  dollars,  and  more  than  twice  that  amount  in  our 
money,  should  be  made  io  property-lioldcrs. 

I  shall  here  remark  that  Dan  ton,  who,  I  contend,  was 
generally  in  the  right,  made  a  most  unjust  attack  on  Sieyes 
for  his  action  in  this  matter,  and  claimed  that  he,  the 
"  priest,"  had  defended  the  tithes,  and  in  doing  so  had  con- 
sidered nothing  but  the  interests  of  his  order.  But  Sieyes  had 
done  no  such  thing  :  he  defended  the  interests  of  the  poor. 
He  did  not  oppose  himself  to  the  abohtion  of  the  tithes,  but 
to  the  non-compensation  clause. 

If,  therefore,  the  sacrifices  of  Aug.  4  had  made  little  im- 
pression on  the  minds  of  the  masses,  it  would  have  been 
no  wonder.  It  was  the  middle  classes  for  whom  things 
had  succeeded  splendidly,  and  who  could  sing  "  (^a  ira  !  " 
with  more  unction  than  ever. 

But  soon  a  great  event  occurs  that  shows  that  the  Parisian 
masses  had  nevertheless  been  sufficiently  impressed  never  to 
allow  the  Revolution  to  be  undone.  For,  when  some 

weeks  had  passed,  the  counter-Revolution  raises  its  head 
again.  They  want  to  carry  Louis  off  to  Metz,  and  from 
there  commence  a  civil  war  in  whose  abyss  the  Revolu- 
tion shall  disappear.  The  arrival  of  a  loyal  regiment  from 
Inlanders  at  Versailles  gives  officer-conspirators  opportunity 
to  meet  at  bancjuets,  which  the  King  and  Queen  attend,  and 
where  the  national  cockade  is  trodden  under  foot,  and  re- 
venge is  sworn.  News  of  this  spreads  among  the  Parisians. 
This  is  the  occasion  when  Danton  for  the  first  time  enters 


48  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGLME.  [Feb., 

actively  into  the  Revolution.  He  causes  his  club  to  issue 
a  rousing  call  on  the  people  to  march  on  Versailles.  The 
Parisians  do  march,  first  the  women  of  the  market-halls,  and 
then  the  men,  and,  by  gentle  but  very  effective  persuasions, 
succeed  in  taking  back  with  them  to  Paris  the  royal  family, 
whom  they  lodge  in  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries.  From  this 
time  Paris  —  then  a  city  of  eight  hundred  thousand  inhabit- 
ants —  becomes  the  central  theatre  of  action. 

These  strange  proceedings  take  place  on  the  6th  of  Oc- 
tober, 1789,  and  have  far-reaching  effects,  for  they  robbed 
royalty  of  all  its  nimbus  in  the  eyes  of  Frenchmen  — forever. 
More  than  that.  We  have  hitherto  found  the  Parisian  popu- 
lation very,  very  modest;  even  the  bourgeoisie  was  so  at 
first.  But  now  that  modesty,  also,  vanishes ;  that  is  to  say, 
in  tlie  working-class  as  a  body,  in  corpore.  All  through  the 
Revolution  they  remain  self-distrustful  as  individuals. 

Already,  after  the  "  delirium  of  suicide,"  a  great  many 
nobles  had  followed  the  example  of  the  princes  of  the  blood  ; 
now,  after  the  6th  of  October,  there  is  a  perfect  exodus  of 
nobles  and  priests. 

Another  circumstance  that  shows  that  the  masses  were 
really  "impressed  "  by  the  course  of  the  Revolution  so  far, 
is  the  joyful,  confident,  and  enthusiastic  mood  of  the  people 
on  all  occasions  now  and  for  some  time  yet  to  come,  and 
which  contrasts  so  wonderfully  with  the  spirit  that  shall  take 
possession  of  them  three  years  hence. 

The  King,  some  time  during  the  following  February,  takes 
it  into  his  head  to  pay  a  visit  to  his  National  Assembly,  which 
has  followed  the  royal  family  to  Paris,  and  holds  its  sittings 
in  a  riding-school  near  the  palace.  He  comes  informally, 
and  this  simple  circumstance  so  affects  all  its  members,  that 
they  fall  into  each  other's  arms  and  swear  fidelity  to  the  father- 
land. Paris,  when  she  hears  of  it,  is  affected  in  the  same 
manner,  and  takes  up  the  cry,  "  We  swear  !  "  and  the  whole 


1790.]  AUGUST  FOURTH.  49 

country  follows  suit,  so  that  for  three  whole  weeks  all  France 
resounds  with  the  cry,  "  \Ve  all  swear  !  " 

But  it  is  when  the  first  anniversary  of  the  taking  of  the 
Bastille  comes  round  that  this  enthusiasm  reaches  its  height. 

National  guards  from  the  departments  swarmed  into  Paris. 
Platforms  for  the  patriots  were  being  constructed  in  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  a  huge  open  space  almost  in  the  centre 
of  Old  Paris.  Then  it  was  rumored  that  fifteen  thousand 
workmen  were  not  sufficient  to  finish  the  work  in  time.  A 
simultaneous  impulse  moved  the  entire  population  of  Paris 
at  the  report,  and  soon  there  was  an  ant-hill  of  a  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand  workmen,  trundling  wheelbarrows  and  digging 
the  ground  in  a  workshop  forty  thousand  yards  in  width,  and 
whose  length  went  clean  beyond  sight. 

Every  district,  every  corporation,  every  family,  was  repre- 
sented there.  Drums  were  beating,  bands  were  playing ; 
women  and  children  come  on,  three  abreast,  with  spades  on 
their  shoulders,  singing  the  new  song,  "(7c?  /rcz/"  Old  men 
and  women  aided  in  erecting  the  "  altar  of  the  country,"  — 
the  altar  on  which  to  take  the  civil  oath,  the  oath  of  liberty  and 
equality.  Collegians,  schoolboys,  students  of  the  Academy  of 
Painting  and  of  the  Veterinary  School,  market-porters,  "■  who 
are  as  good  as  the  strong  men  of  Israel,"  printers,  —  those 
of  Prudhomme  decorated  with  his  paper,  Les  Revolutions 
de  Paris  —  charcoal-burners  who  had  quitted  their  living 
sepulchres,  and  were  asking  in  bewilderment,  "  What  is  this 
for  a  psalm, '  (7a  ira ' .?  "  Women  laughed  and  danced  around 
bewildered  monks.  Swiss  guards,  French  guards,  market- 
women,  and  court  ladies  were  all  there.  The  King  came,  and 
they  applauded  him.  Lafayette  came,  and  he  was  applauded 
even  more  than  the  King.  All  was  confidence  and  fraternity 
during  these  blissful  hours.  Not  a  theft  took  place.  Mar- 
quises removed  their  gloves  to  shake  hand  with  coal-porters. 

The  following  night  was  passed  by  great  numbers  on  the 


50  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.        [July  14, 

Champ  (le  Mars.  Multitudes  were  up  with  sunrise.  Furious 
rain-storms  arose  ;  but  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind,  and  under 
the  lash  of  the  rain,  the  folks  from  Auvergne  danced  their 
dourree,  and  the  Provencals  their  farandoles.  Immense 
rings  of  dancers  were  formed.  "  Look  at  these  Frenchmen, 
dancing  while  the  rain  is  falling  in  torrents,"  said  astonished 
foreigners.' 

After  the  taking  of  the  civic  oath  l)y  the  King  and  the 
high  functionaries,  followed  beating  of  drums,  firing  of  guns, 
waving  of  swords,  shouts  of  triumph,  tossing  of  hats  into 
the  air.  All  were  drunk  with  enthusiasm.  One  unanimous 
cry  issued  from  the  lips  of  six  hundred  thousand  Frenchmen  : 
"  France  is  free  !  we  swear  it !  "  Fathers  held  up  the  hands 
of  their  little  children. 

And  the  site  of  the  Bastille  was  turned  into  an  artificial 
wood,  in  which  large  trees  were  lighted  up,  and  adorned 
with  pikes  and  Phrygian  caps,  and  with  the  famous  inscrip- 
tion, "  Dancing  here." 

No  wonder  that  Frenchmen  of  to-day  are  seriously  debat- 
ing whether,  in  the  monument  of  the  Revolution  soon  to  be 
erected,  they  should  not  immortalize  this  great  "  Festival  of 
the  Federation,"  as  it  was  called,  rather  than  the  taking 
of  the  Bastille. 

And  is  it  not  evident  from  this,  that  all  the  horrors  that 
followed  might  very  well  have  been  avoided  ?  that,  indeed, 
they  would  never  have  occurred  if  the  court  party  had  but 
])hilosophically  accepted  the  handwriting  on  the  wall,  like 
their  English  brethren,  and  even  if  the  nobles  had  not  been 
such  dastards  as  to  lead  a  foreign  foe  against  their  fatherland  ? 
*         *         *■ 

So  far  we  have  seen  the  National  Assembly  only  destructive, 
clearing  the  way  for  the  dominion  of  the  i)lutocracy.     Now 

•  Tliis  description  is  taken  from  Camillc's  newspaper,  Revolutions  0/  France 
and  lirabaitt. 


1790.1         CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-ONE.  5 1 

we  shall  see  the  same  Assembly  organizing,  upbuilding,  that 
dominion,  it  goes  without  saying.  In  that  character  it  is 
known  in  history  as  the  Constituent  Assembly,  constituting 
the  political  constitution  of  France,  a  work  that  took  it  fully 
two  years. 

In  that  capacity  it  had  very  much  to  do,  indeed.  Part  of 
this  it  did  very  well ;  some  of  its  work  was  of  doubtful 
value. 

Let  us  bear  in  mind  that  all  the  old  institutions  were  vir- 
tually razed  to  the  ground  ;  all  was  tabula  rasa.  They  had 
to  rebuild  even  the  whole  administrative  and  governmental 
machinery.  In  this  work  they  could  do  about  as  they 
pleased  :  there  was  no  power  strong  enough  to  hinder  them, 
and  no  doubt  they  wanted  to  do  the  best  they  knew. 

But  the  mischief  was,  that  they  did  not  know,  and  could 
not  know,  what  really  was  best  to  do.  Their  views  were 
naturally  very  narrow,  because  their  horizon  was  limited. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  they  had  destroyed  one  social  order,  and 
were  to  prepare  for  a  new  social  order,  separated  from  them 
by  several  generations ;  but  how  could  they  know  that  ? 
How  could  they  know  that  the  actual  institutions  which  they 
themselves  were  going  to  erect  were,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
merely  to  be  temporary,  transitional ;  so  to  speak,  but  a  scaf- 
folding for  the  coming  social  order? 

All  the  ideas  they  had  were  those  which  the  thinkers  of 
the  preceding  generation,  and  more  particularly  Montesquieu, 
Diderot,  and  Rousseau  had  inoculated  them  with,  —  the  same 
ideas  that  filled  the  heads  of  the  whole  of  their  own  gener- 
ation ;  the  ideas  that  were  embodied  in  the  cahiers,  or  plat- 
forms, on  which  they  had  been  elected.  Further,  they  had, 
besides  these  ideas,  an  example,  a  model,  before  their  eyes, 
—  that  of  England.  And  lastly,  and  really  most  important  in 
iletermining  the  character  of  the  work  they  had  to  do,  this 
fact,  that  they  all  belonged  to  the  well-tj-do  middle  classes. 


52  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.       [April  i6. 

The  Assembly  was  a  middle-class  assembly  ;  its  armed  force 
was  the  National  Guard,  all  middle-class  men  ;  their  mayor, 
Bailly,  who  controlled  the  popular  forces  of  Paris,  was  a 
middle-class  man.  In  the  nature  of  things,  therefore,  they 
did  not  and  would  not  labor  for  the  multitude,  but  for  men 
of  property ;  that  is  to  say,  men  unth  superfluities.  The 
"liberty"  they  had  in  mind  was  the  liberty  of  men  with 
superfluities;  the  "equality"  they  meant,  the  equality  of 
men  with  superfluities. 

Upon  the  whole,  they  were  placed  about  in  the  same  posi- 
tion as  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  the  United  States, 
which  had  met  a  couple  of  years  before,  with  Washington 
for  presiding  officer  :  but  their  field  of  action  was  much 
broader,  and  they  had  much  freer  hands ;  and  I  should  say 
they  did  their  work  about  equally  well.  It  must  be  acknowl- 
edged that  in  this  sphere  on  which  we  now  are  entering 
Mirabeau  was  the  acknowledged  leader,  and  his  influence 
and  activity  were  pre-eminent. 

First,  then,  they  divided  France  into  communes,  districts, 
and  departments  ;  they  made  all  magistrates  elective  ;  they 
instituted  justices  of  the  peace  and  juries  ;  they  reformed, 
much  for  the  better,  the  civil  and  criminal  laws,  abolished 
torture,  and  equalized  punishments ;  they  suppressed  all 
religious  orders,  and  abolished  all  titles  of.  nobility ;  they 
established  unity  of  money,  weights,  and  measures  all  over 
France  ;  they  reformed  the  army,  making  it  truly  national, 
and  every  one  of  its  functions  open  to  all ;  and  most  im- 
portant, as  absolutely  essential  to  a  capitalist  er'a,  they 
established  the  legality  of  leuding  money  out  on  interest,  — 
a  measure  by  which  the  operations  of  the  money  market 
received  their  first  legal  sanction  ! 

Well,  now  the  Revolution  is  really  complete. 

For  now  the  three  great  niidtlle-class  principles  are  fully 
established  in  the  laws ;  these,  to  wit,  Free  Competition, 


I790.]  CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-ONE.  53 

Equalitv  before  the  Law,  and  The  Unity  of  the  State. 
These  are  three  great  principles,  while  "  Liberty,  Equality, 
and  Fraternity  "  are  really  but  phrases.  Moreover,  these  are 
the  great  revolutionary  principles  which  Frenchmen  mean, 
and  are  so  proud  of,  when  they  talk  of  their  "Revolution  ;" 
and  these  three  principles  have  never  been  called  in  question, 
from  the  Constituent  Assembly  to  our  days. 

Certainly  there  cannot,  then,  be  a  doubt  about  this,  —  that 
the  French  Revolution  must  be  pronounced  a  success. 

But  they  had  other  important  things  to  do.  They  had 
to  save  France  from  bankruptcy,  to  bring  order  into  the 
finances.  They  succeeded  admirably  in  domg  this,  and 
almost  instantly.  A  sole  measure  did  it,  — the  confiscation 
of  the  landed  property  of  the  Church. 

We  already  have  seen  the  tithes  confiscated  for  the  benefit 
of  property-holders ;  now  the  rest  of  the  clergy's  property, 
representing  an  annual  revenue  of  more  than  fifteen  million 
dollars,  is  —  not  "  confiscated,"  for  Mirabeau  manages  to  sub- 
stitute this  phrase,  '■'■placed  at  the  disposition  of  the  nation^ 
By  the  means  of  paper  money,  as  signals,  first  issued  April  16, 
I  790,  based  on  this  ecclesiastical  property,  the  new  regime 
was  put  on  an  excellent  financial  footing.  As  "  compensa- 
tion," the  State  took  upon  itself  to  pay,  for  the  future,  the 
functionaries  of  the  Church  yearly  salaries,  and  thereby 
th(juglit  to  have  accomphshed  a  second  grand  stroke  of 
policy,  —  that  of  having  placed  the  Church  under  the  civil 
authority. 

But,  in  truth,  looked  upon  from  the  stand-point  of  their 
own  interests,  this  whole  business  was  really  a  very  poor 
expedient. 

Because  they  thereby  saved  themselves  the  necessity  of 
going  into  their  own  pockets  for  the  means  of  paying  the  pub- 
lic debt,  —  and  that  was  their  leading  motive  for  confiscating 
the  Cliurch  property,  —  these  "  delcnders  of  property  "  had 


54  THFi   MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.  [1790- 

not  the  least  scruple  of  laying  violent  hands  on  the  property 
of  a  corporation  that  Voltaire  and  Diderot  had  taught  them 
to  hate, —  did  so,  indeed,  with  enthusiasm.  They  certainly 
might  have  seen  that  they  were  attacking  "  property  "  in  its 
very  origin.  They  taught  others  the  lesson,  that,  as  it  is 
society  that  sanctions  property,  society  may,  by  its  constituted 
authorities,  renwoe  that  sanction.  Could  they  not  see,  that, 
by  the  stroke  they  wielded,  they  fashioned  a  most  powerful 
precedent  against  themselves? 

Lastly,  they  had  to  frame  a  new  form  of  government. 

Here  they  had  an  acknowledged  master  to  teach  them 
what  to  do.  Montesquieu  had  distinctly  placed  before  them 
the  British  Constitution  as  the  one  they  had  to  copy.  They 
all  agreed  about  that,  and  both  he  and  they  were  undoubt- 
edly right  there.  England  had,  many  years  before,  travelled 
the  same  road  they  were  travelling,  and  had  now  successfully 
accomplished  her  journey  and  her  task.  But  what  portions 
of  that  constitution  were  they  to  copy  ?  That  was  the  great, 
bewildering  question.  Montesquieu,  the  great  empiricist,  had 
particularly  told  them,  it  may  be  remembered,  to  copy  the 
division  0/  poxaers.  Finally,  they  seem  to  have  come  to  the 
conclusion,  led  by  Mirabeau  and  Lafayette,  that  they  would 
try  to  copy,  like  their  American  brethren,  the  whole  thing, 
from  top  to  bottom,  in  every  detail,  as  far  as  they  could. 

They  tell  a  story  of  the  Chinese  to  the  effect  that  once 
some  wooden  huts  burned  down,  containing  several  hogs.  A 
Chinaman  happened  to  taste  these  hogs,  and  his  experience 
introduced  roast  pork  to  the  Chinese.  They  liked  it ;  but 
for  a  long  time  after,  they  were  under  the  impression,  that 
the  only  way  of  procuring  the  delicacy  was  to  build  wooden 
huts,  ])ut  hogs  into  them,  and  then  set  fire  to  them. 

That  is  really  the  way  that  the  middle  classes  of  Europe 
and  America  have  gone  to  work  to  secure  the  blessings  of 
the  British  Constitution  to  themselves. 


1791-1  CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-ONE.  55 

Why  was  the  British  Constitution  a  good  model  for  Amer- 
ica and  France  ?  Because  it  secured  to  the  middle  classes 
unquestioned  dominion.  But  what  was  it  in  the  Constitution 
that  secured  this  end?  The  parliamentary  system,  and  that 
solely ;  that  part,  then,  it  was  they  had  to  copy.  But  they  go 
on,  and  want,  further,  two  chambers,  a  constitutional  king, 
—  or  something  that  looked  as  mucli  as  possible  like  a 
king,  —  and,  of  course,  the  division  of  powers  among  three 
departments,  legislative,  executive,  and  judicial ;  though 
these  features  in  the  British  Constitution  are  merely  the 
outcome  of  the  compromise  which  we  saw  was  made  between 
the  aristocracy  and  plutocracy. 

Well,  the  United  States  went  the  whole  length.  We 
adopted  the  two-chamber  system,  and  have,  in  imitation  of 
tlie  Chinese  in  the  fable,  carried  it  to  the  ridiculous  length 
that  our  subordinate  "  States  "  at  the  present  day  must  also 
each  have  its  "  lower  "  house  and  "  upper  "  house,  though 
both  are  named  by  the  same  electors.  We  adopted  the  sys- 
tem of  three  co-ordinate  powers,  so  that  daily  laws  are  so 
beautifully  made  in  one  spirit,  executed  in  a  second,  and 
interpreted  in  a  third  spirit ;  but  that  gives  "  business  "  to 
lawyers.  Lastly,  since  we  have  no  person  of  royal  blood  out 
of  whom  to  make  a  real  king,  we  had  to  be  satisfied  with  a 
"  dress-coat "  imitation. 

France,  for  the  time  being,  was  saved  from  the  two- 
chamber  system  and  the  worst  effects  of  the  division  of 
powers,  mainly  by  the  i)ressure  exercised  by  the  Parisians, 
who,  again,  were  mainly  influenced  by  Danton,  but  only  after 
a  hard  struggle. 

But  the  Assembly  committed  the  great  blunder  of  retain- 
ing the  monarchy,  —  or,  at  least,  the  blunder  of  retaining  the 
Bourbons  on  the  throne,  —  though  they  at  one  time  had  a 
splendid  opportunity  of  ridding  France  of  it.  They  evidently 
wanted  a  king  as  a  shield  to  protect  them  against  the  masses, 


56  THE  MIDDLE -CLASS  REGIME.  [Feb.. 


whom  they  coniiuenced  lo  fear.  This  feature,  however,  will 
be  left  to  the  following  pages,  for  it  constitutes  the  principal 
part  of  Danton's  activity  as  agitator. 

Yet  the  Constituent  Assembly  did  the  one  essential  thing  : 
they  established  one  legislative  body,  with  sovereign  authority. 
They  took  good  care  to  secure  to  the  middle  classes  exclu- 
sive authority  in  and  over  that  body,  by  deliberately  dividing 
the  people  into  bourgeoisie  and  proletariat,  into  those  with 
and  those  without  property,  giving  the  right  of  voting  and 
sitting  in  the  Legislature  to  the  former  class  exclusively. 
But  they  committed  a  folly  in  the  names  they  gave  to  these 
classes,  in  a  country  where  words  play  such  a  great  7-dlc ;  call- 
ing the  former  "  active  "  citizens,  and  the  latter  "  passive  " 
citizens.  Yet,  remarkable  enough,  the  poor  citizens  did  not 
at  first  seem  to  take  offence.  It  required  some  efforts  by 
the  journalists  (all  of  them  bourgeois,  by  the  way),  who  sym- 
pathized witli  the  masses,  to  teach  them  how  odious  it  was 
to  be  a  "  passive  "  citizen. 

In  fine,  the  National  Assembly  did  pretty  effectually  what 
it  was  sent  to  do  :  it  freed  from  all  shackles  the  man  who 
suffices  himself,  the  man  who  is  instructed  and  well  off,  — 
the  plutoerat. 

And  now  it  is  time  to  return  to  Danton.  I  do  not  claim 
for  him  any  share  whatever  in  the  making  of  the  Revolution, 
and  yet  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  conviction  that  the  National 
Assembly  would  hardly  have  gained  and  maintained  its  as- 
cendency as  easily  as  it  did  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  sup- 
port of  Paris ;  and  Paris  would  hardly  have  been  so  revolu- 
tionary-minded, if  there  had  not  arisen,  at  the  right  moment, 
in  the  centre  of  old  Paris,  in  the  so-called  district  of  the 
Cordeliers  (for  a  time  called  the  district  of  the  Th<^atre 
I'ranrais)  an  energetic  group  of  young  patriots  of  whom 
Danton  was  the  soul  from  tlie  very  first,  —  "the  President  of 


1791-1       DANTON  THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN.  57 

the  Republic  of  the  Cordehers,"  as  the  royalists  of  1791 
called  him. 

This  party  of  young  men  got  their  name  from  the  meeting- 
place, —  the  Club  of  the  Cordeliers,  a  part  of  the  present 
lioulevard  St.  Germain,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Seine.  They 
all  lived  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  club,  liked  to  mingle 
with  the  people,  spoke  always  with  open  doors,  and  often 
pitched  their  studies  in  the  open  streets.  The  principal 
members,  besides  Danton,  were  Camille  Desmoulins,  journal- 
ist ;  Fabre  d'Eglantine,  a  successful  author  of  plays,  getting 
his  name  from  having  been  crowned  for  one  of  them ; 
Freron ;  Chaumette ;  Legendre ;  Robert,  a  faithful  Dan- 
tonist,  and  later  member  of  the  Convention  from  Paris  : 
further,  Momoro,  the  revolutionary  printer ;  Cloots,  the 
rich  German  baron,  who  wanted  a  "  republic  of  the 
world;"  Guzman,  a  jr^z/u-^/z^/zt' '  Spanish  grandee;  Marat, 
tlien  forty-five  years  old,  and  the  sole  elderly  man  among 
them  ;  and  Hebert.  With  the  latter  ones  Danton  was  not 
on  the  footing  of  personal  intimacy.  They  possessed  the 
three  great  revolutionary  requisites  :  a  thundering  eloquence 
ni  Danton,  who  never  wrote;  a  slashing  pen  in  Camille; 
and  hot,  furious  enthusiasm  in  all.  They  might  from  the 
start  have  been  compared  to  a  regmient  always  under  arms, 
as,  in  fact,  they  soon  became  ;  for  they  formed  themselves 
into  a  company  of  the  National  Guard,  with  Danton  as  com- 
manding officer.  They,  in  June,  1791,  mvented  the  device, 
"  Liberty,  Equality,  and  Fraternity." 

Danton  was  a  born  tribune  of  the  people.  He  had  the 
necessary  physical  qualifications, — hair  like  a  horse's  mane, 
a  gigantic  stature,  and  a  roaring  voice.  Over  the  masses  he 
had  at  that  time  a  wonderful  influence,  due,  partly,  to  his 
warm  sympathy  with  them,  which  he  kept  to  his  dying  day, 

'  Troll serUss:  first  a  name  of  contempt  applied  to  the  volunteers,  because  of 
thcii  ragged  clothes;  later  on  adopted  by  the  Jacobins  as  synonymous  \ii\.\\ patriot. 


58  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.       [April  i8, 

but  greatly,  also,  to  the  fact  that  at  that  time  his  passions 
were  those  of  the  multitude.  Under  these  circumstances, 
it  certainly  would  be  very  strange  if  he  was  not  at  that  time 
something  of  a  demagogue.  He  was  principally  an  agitator, 
and  an  agitator  has  necessarily  some  of  the  unlovely  features 
of  the  demagogue.  But  even  at  this  time  he  was  wiser  than 
all  —  even  than  Mirabeau  —  as  to  the  form  of  government 
that  then  was  required  in  France  ;  and  he  surpassed  all  his 
contemporaries  in  energy  of  character. 

We  have  already  seen  Danton  encouraging  the  Parisians 
to  march  on  Versailles,  and  how  he  misrepresented  Sieyes  in 
the  matter  of  the  tithes.  During  the  "  Festival  of  the  Fed- 
eration," the  representatives  of  the  eighty-three  departments 
sent  to  Paris  could  not  well  help  remarking  Danton,  who, 
moreover,  was  present  and  si)oke  at  a  banquet  given  in  their 
honor.  In  February,  1791,  he  was  elected  one  of  the  ad- 
ministrators of  the  Department  of  Paris,  —  a  sort  of  over- 
seers of  the  municipality.  It  is  about  this  time  that  he 
commenced  to  frequent  the  Club  of  the  Jacobins. 

This  was  the  other  of  the  celebrated  Parisian  clubs,  was 
situated  on  the  north  of  the  Seine,  and  was  soon  going  to 
become  of  overshadowing  influence  all  over  France.  It  had 
been  formed  by  the  more  radical  members  of  the  Assembly, 
and  was,  in  opposition  to  the  Cordeliers,  a  grave  parliamentary 
debating  society.  There  was  at  that  time  an  absolute  neces- 
sity, in  order  to  make  the  Revolution  succeed,  for  such  clubs, 
as  well  as  for  agitators.  The  books  had  only  influenced  the 
comparatively  few  educated  persons  ;  the  agitators  and  pop- 
ular societies  had  to  move  the  hearts  of  the  great  numbers  : 
that  is  the  reason  we  soon  find  in  every  town,  ay,  in  every 
village,  a  branch  of  the  Jacobin  Society,  and  each  with  its 
lesser  Danton  or  Robespierre,  according  to  the  times,  each  a 
perfect  image  of  the  mother  society.  The  latter  sent  out  its 
cries,  its  resolutions,  which  spread  themselves  all  over  France 


1791-1       DANTON  THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN.  59 

like  lightning,  and  in  a  few  days  were  returned  to  Paris  from 
these  branches  as  an  irrevocable  plebiscite,  —  an  expression 
of  the  will  of  the  whole  people.  When  Danton  commenced 
to  frequent  and  speak  at  the  Jacobins,  his  personal  friends 
from  the  Cordeliers  naturally  followed  him.  He  seemed  to 
like  the  society,  which  ended  by  his  and  his  friends'  becom- 
ing members  of  it.  This  proved  afterwards  a  real  mis- 
fortune to  him  and  to  France  ;  for  as  a  result  the  Club 
of  the  Cordeliers,  and  with  it  the  Commune  of  Paris,  fell 
into  the  hands  of  Hebert  and  followers,  who  were  left  be- 
hind, —  that  is  to  say,  of  very  rough  elements. 

Since  the  day  the  royal  family  had  been  taken  from  Ver- 
sailles to  Paris,  while  the  Assembly  was  quietly  pursuing  its 
labors,  as  we  have  seen,  the  King  had  lived  quite  unnoticed 
in  his  palace,  except  that  he  had  taken  a  perfunctory  part  in 
the  "  Festival  of  the  Federation." 

P)Ut  in  April,  1791,  Mirabeau  dies.  This  death  proves  a 
flir  harder  blow  to  the  King  than  the  people  at  that  time 
supposed,  for  he  had  been  for  some  time  his  secret  adviser 
—  for  a  consideration.  Mirabeau  gone,  the  King  resolves 
upon  fleeing  with  his  family,  at  the  first  opportunity.  So,  a 
few  days  after,  in  the  same  month  of  April,  the  Parisians  learn 
that  the  King  will  go  to  St.  Cloud,  for  the  Easter  holidays. 
The  patriots  become  alarmed,  and  suspect  that  this  is  an 
attempt  to  get  out  of  the  kingdom  to  put  himself  at  the  head 
of  the  emigrated  princes  and  nobles.  They,  and  Danton 
among  them,  attach,  rightly  or  wrongly,  great  weight  to  keep- 
ing him  in  Paris.  Consequently,  when  the  King  and  his 
family  are  ready  to  leave  the  palace  for  St.  Cloud  on  April 
1 8,  Danton  appears  with  his  Cordelier  battalion,  and  prevents 
their  departure  by  force.  That  bold  step,  of  course,  still 
more  endeared  him  to  the  patriots,  and  increased  the  rage 
of  the  royalists  still  more  against  him. 

At  length,  in  the  following  June,  1791,  the  King  actually 


60  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.  [June. 

succeeds  in  secretly  leaving  Paris  with  his  family,  and  they 
are  very  near  the  frontier  before  they  are  recognized  and 
apprehended.  Great  consternation,  as  a  consequence,  among 
all  patriots.  Danton  is  the  only  one  among  them  who  ap- 
parently keeps  a  cool  head,  and  demands  that  the  Assembly 
shall  use  this  excellent  opportunity  for  ridding  France  of 
royalty  forever.  This  is  the  crucial  point  of  Danton's  career 
as  agitator.  He  had  already  successfully  opposed,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  two-chamber  system  and  the  illusion  of  the. division 
of  powers  ;  now  he  attempts  to  rid  France  of  the  illusion  of 
a  king. 

A  king  is  certainly  of  no  earthly  use  in  a  parliamentary 
middle-class  government,  —  the  United  States  and  France, 
of  late,  have  proved  that.  Still,  on  the  other  hand,  a  mon- 
arch who  will  consent  to  remain  a  mere  figure-head,  perfectly 
passive,  like  Louis  Philippe  or  Queen  Victoria,  is  not  of  much 
harm.  But  it  is  not  to  be  expected  that  an  absolute  mon- 
arch will  consent  to  be  degraded  to  a  figure-head.  There 
is  only  one  instance  in  history,  that  of  Frederick  VII.  of 
Denmark  ;  but  while  Louis  XVI.  in  many  respects  resembled 
that  king,  still  his  conduct  at  the  royal  session  of  June  23, 
1 789,  had  shown  that  he  held  considerably  on  to  his  dignity. 
At  all  events,  he  had  a  queen  and  brothers  who  would  have 
vetoed  any  such  abnegation.  The  English  were  alive  to  this 
fact,  and  therefore  in  their  revolution  they  changed  their 
dynasty,  and  put  a  prince  on  the  throne  to  whom  constitu- 
tional royalty  was  still  an  elevation.  Either  the  Duke  of 
Orleans  king,  or  a  republic,  was  therefore  the  true  statesman- 
like expedient  for  France  after  the  Revolution.  Danton  has 
been  persistently  charged — without  a  particle  of  evidence 
being  adduced  —  with  secretly  favoring  the  candidature  of 
the  duke  ;  were  that  so,  he  would  still,  for  that  reason,  have 
been  more  of  a  patriotic  statesman  than  either  Mirabeau  or 
Lafayette,  who  clung  to  Louis  XVI, 


I79I.]       D ANTON  THE  FIRST  REPUBLICAN.  6 1 

lUit  now,  the  most  aiis[)icious  opportunity  having  come 
for  getting  rid  of  the  Bourbons,  he  is  openly  repubhcan, 
whenever  first  he  may  have  become  so.  First  of  all,  lie  is 
republican  ;  for  all  others,  Robespierre  included,  are  still 
royalists.  He  declares  that  the  Assembly  shall  say  that  the 
flight  of  Louis  is  a  forfeiture  of  the  crown,  and  decree  France 
a  republic. 

He  causes  his  Club  of  the  Cordeliers  to  publish  an  address, 
of  which  the  following  is  an  extract :  — 

"  There  is  no  longer  any  pretended  agreement  of  a  people 
with  its  king.  Louis  has  abdicated  his  kingdom ;  henceforth 
he  will  be  nothing  to  us,  unless  he  shall  become  our  enemy. 

"  Legislators  !  think  of  how  impossible  it  is,  after  what  has 
happened,  that  you  can  inspire  the  people  with  any  degree 
of  confidence  in  a  functionary  called  king  ;  therefore  we  im- 
plore you,  in  the  name  of  the  fatherland,  either  to  declare 
immediately  that  France  is  no  longer  a  monarchy  but  that  it 
is  a  republic,  or  at  least  to  wait  until  all  the  primary  assem- 
blies have  declared  their  wish  on  this  important  question, 
before  you  again  fetter  this,  the  finest  empire  in  the  world, 
with  the  chains  of  monarchy." 

This  address  was  received  with  enthusiasm  by  all  the 
patriotic  societies  of  Paris,  except  the  Jacobins.  This  society 
was  still  so  royalist  that  the  address  there  met  with  a  violent 
opposition. 

Meanwhile  it  was  learned  that  the  royal  family  had  (un- 
fortunately for  France,  I  rather  think)  been  stopped,  and 
rnemljcrs  of  the  Assembly  were  delegated  to  accompany 
them  back  to  Paris. 

Danton  then  makes  a  speech,  in  which  he  says,  — 

"  The  individual  called  King  of  the  French  has  fled,  after 
having  sworn  to  maintain  the  constitution  ;  and  I  hear  it 
said  that  he  has  not  forfeited  the  crown.  .  .  .  Certainly  he 
must  be  criminal,  unless  he  be  an  imbecile.     It  would  be  a 


62  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  RKGI}rE.        [July  17. 

horrible  spectacle  to  present  to  the  universe,  if,  having  the 
choice  between  thinking  our  King  a  criminal  or  an  imbecile, 
we  did  not  choose  the  latter  alternative. 

"  But  a  royal  individual  cannot  be  king,  when  he  is 
imbecile ;  and  we  do  not  want  a  regency,  but  an  executive 
council.  This  council  should  not  be  chosen  from  among  the 
Assembly.  Let  the  departments  assemble,  and  each  choose 
an  elector,  which  electors  ought  to  appoint  the  ten  or  twelve 
persons  who  should  constitute  the  council." 

Danton,  certainly,  then  does  all  he  can  to  have  France 
then  and  there  made  a  republic ;  and  this  is  his  best  work 
as  agitator. 

But  the  Assembly  did  not  utilize  the  opportunity  to  dis- 
pense with  a  king ;  they  overlooked  Louis'  flight,  and  let 
him  remain  a  useless  figure-head  of  the  constitutional  ship 
they  were  constructing.  From  this  time,  however,  Paris  was 
divided  into  two  camps:  republicans  —  the  masses  of  the 
people  —  and  royalists,  with  whom  now  the  official  middle- 
class  leaders  ranged  themselves. 

Between  these  two  camps  it  soon  came  to  a  bloody 
skirmish.  On  a  Sunday  evening,  the  17th  of  July,  1791, 
almost  the  anniversary  of  the  great  "  Federation  Festival," 
while  the  Champ  de  Mars  was  crowded  with  citizens,  who 
had  come  to  sign  a  petition,  drawn  by  the  Dantonist  Robert, 
praying  the  Assembly  for  the  king's  deposition,  and  which 
had  been  spread  on  the  altar  of  the  country,  Lafayette,  the 
middle-class  general,  and  Bailly,  the  middle-class  mayor, 
arrived,  at  the  head  of  an  armed  force,  and,  after  reading 
the  Riot-Act,  fired  on  the  people,  killing  a  number  of  citizens. 

That  was  the  first  collision  between  the  middle  classes 
and  the  masses.  It  afterwards  sent  Bailly  to  the  scaffold,  and 
Lafiiyette  into  exile.  The  last  collision  between  the 

same  parties  is  known  as  the  Commune  of  Paris. 

Meanwhile  tlic  principal  republican  leaders  were  tlircat- 


I79I.1         DOINGS  OF  THE  ''  BOURGEOISIE:'  63 

encd  with  arrest.  In  conse(iucncc,  Danton  left  France,  and 
went  to  London,  where  he  staid  a  couple  of  months  with 
his  step-brother.  This  was  the  time  he  made  his  English 
trii),  and  not  after  taking  the  Bastille,  in  1 789,  as  most 
histories  have  it. 

When  he  returned,  he  was  elected  deputy  prosecutor  of 
the  Commune  ;  but  his  career  as  agitator  had  now  closed. 
He  performed  the  duties  of  his  office,  but  took  hardly  any 
part  in  public  life.     He  was  waiting  for  events  to  ripen. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  at  length  finished  its  work, 
and  made  the  King,  for  the  last  time,  go  through  the  farce 
of  swearing  to  the  constitution  they  had  prepared  ;  then 
they  closed  their  sittings,  on  Sept.  30,  1791,  after  passing  a 
last,  silly  resolution,  on  the  motion  of  Robespierre,  that  none 
of  its  members  should  be  eligible  to  the  incoming  Legislative 
Body.  They  had  faithfully  served  their  class  ;  they  left  their 
class  in  supreme  power,  with  nothing,  surely,  to  fear  from 
above,  and  nothing,  apparently,  to  fear  from  below. 
*         *         * 

Since,  now,  it  was  the  object  of  the  French  Revolution  to 
install  the  rich  middle  classes,  the  plutocracy,  in  supreme 
power,  and  since  they  have  been  exercising  that  power  in 
France  now  for  nearly  a  century,  as  they  have  in  the 
United  States  for  about  the  same  length  of  time,  and  in 
Great  Britain  for  a  much  longer  period,  it  may  be  interesting 
to  know  what  account  they  can  give  of  their  stewardship, 
as  surely  one  day  or  other  they  will  have  to  render  one. 

We  saw  that  they  rightfully  acquired  supreme  power ;  for 
the  force  of  things,  the  Power  behind  Evolution,  willed  it  so. 
But  why?  They  surely  must  have  had  some  function,  some 
office  to  perform.  "  Whatever  is,  is  rational ; "  i.  e.,  there  is 
some  reason  for  its  being. 

Carlyle  says  they  were  appointed  to  guard  against  gluts, 
to  preside  over  the  distribution  and  apportionment  of  wages 


64  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.       [Sept.  30, 

for  work  done.  If  that  was  tlieir  only  or  principal  function, 
they  certainly  ha\e  performed  it  miserably,  especially  in 
France,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by ;  and  I  do  not  wonder 
that  Carlyle  much  prefers  as  rulers  the  abbots  and  the  strong 
mailed  hands  of  the  Middle  Ages.  But  then  the  Power 
behind  Evolution  has  committed  a  mistake.  I  rather  think 
that  while  these  were  some  of  their  offices,  among  others, 
they  were  yet  merely  incidental ;  and  that  their  principal 
function,  their  principal  use,  has  been  a  wholly  different  one. 

Our  race  was  to  be  raised  up  on  a  far  higher  plane  than  it 
occupied  during  the  Middle  Ages.  But  this  could  not  be 
done  at  once,  especially  since  production  was  yet  in  a  very 
backward  state.  Men  were  to  be  raised  up  to  the  highest 
form  of  co-operation,  free  co-operation,  where  no  one  was 
to  be  dependent  for  his  living  on  any  other  individual.  But 
if  society  then  had  distributed  her  wealth  equitably,  even  all 
the  wealth  she  by  all  her  efforts  could  produce,  it  would  have 
proven  the  poverty  of  all.  The  great  need,  then,  was  to 
increase  production  ;  increase  it  immensely.  That  could  be 
done  only  by  the  workers.  But  of  these  only  the  middle 
classes  had  sufficient  intelligence  to  be  put  in  command  of 
society,  and  so  they  were  placed  in  supreme  power,  for  the 
specific  purpose  of  increasifig  production. 

Now,  it  must  be  admitted  they  have  performed  that  func- 
tion remarkably  well.  Production  has,  by  universal  consent, 
increased  wonderfully  ;  and,  what  is  still  more  important,  the 
potential  power  of  production  is  now  literally  illimitable. 
For  while  it  still  may  be  said,  that  should  even  the  richest 
nation  at  this  moment  distribute  its  wealth  equitably,  many 
would,  probably,  be  in  want ;  yet  this  is  no  longer  because 
society  cannot  now  with  her  best  effort  satisfy  all,  but  because 
society  dares  not  produce  all  it  can,  for  reasons  presently  to 
be  given.  If  society  were  permitted  to  em])loy  all  willing 
hands  and  brains,  she  could,  with  our  present  a])pliances,  and 


179I-]  DOLYCS  OF  THE  ''  BOURGEOISIEr  65 

without  a  sini;]e  new  invention,  procure  for  e\'ery  one  all 
desirable  comlbrts  with  four  hours'  daily  labor  by  each. 
That  is  wholly  due  to  the  division  of  labor,  machinery,  the 
inventions,  which  the  middle  classes  have  utilized  ;  to  their 
initiative,  private  "enterprise,"  and  free  competition,  in  P>ance 
as  elsewhere.  It  should  also  be  remembered,  to  the  credit 
of  the  French  bourgeoisie,  that  they  tvere  the  fiist  to  get  up 
a  public  exposition  of  the  skilled  products  of  labor,  to  wit, 
in  Paris,  and  already  as  early  as  1799,  and  thus  started  our 
Universal  Expositions,  that  have  given  rise  to  more  new  ideas 
than  the  Crusades  ever  did.  The  middle  classes,  then,  have 
fulfilled  their  principal  function,  that  for  which  they  were 
placed  in  power,  splendidly,  in  France  as  well  as  elsewhere. 

There  is  another  good  thing  they  have  done,  —  not  exactly 
an  immediate  good,  but  good  for  our  progress  in  the  future, 
—  that  is,  that  they  have  taught  the  masses  innumerable 
wants,  made  necessaries  and  decencies  of  life  of  a  great 
many  things  that  were  luxuries,  or  entirely  unknown,  in  the 
Middle  Ages. 

But  what  have  they  done  to  enable  the  masses  to  satisfy 
these  wants  ? 

Ah  !  it  is  the  great  indictment  against  them,  that  they  have 
cared  nothing  at  all  for  social  wants,  but  only  for  their  pri- 
vate interests.  That  is  why  society  does  not  now  produce 
all  it  can  :  because  it  would  be  prejudicial  to  the  private 
interests,  to  the  profits,  of  the  plutocracy.  Of  course  they 
have  most  miserably  i)erformed  those  social  duties  which 
Carlyle  dins  into  their  ears.  But,  then,  the  British  middle 
class,  being  first  in  the  field,  gave  the  French  a  very  bad 
precedent  and  example  to  follow. 

What  if  Giffen  can  prove  that  the  elite  of  the  British 
workers  are  a  little  better  off  than  they  were  forty  years  ago? 
The  British  working-class,  as  a  whole,  are  not  so  well  off  as 
their  forefathers  were  al  the  end  of  the  Middle  Ages,  when 


^6  THE  MIDDLE- CLASS  REGIME.  [1792- 

four  days' labor  sufficed  for  a  week's  support.  Hear  Pro- 
fessor Thorold  Rogers,  a  middle-class  economist  himself: 
"From  1563  to  1824,  the  very  period  when  manufacturers 
and  traders  were  ac(iuiring  immense  fortunes,  and  the  value 
of  agricultural  lands  was  being  trebled,  a  legal  conspiracy 
was  entered  into  by  both  great  political  parties,  and  carried 
out  by  those  interested,  to  cheat  the  English  workman  of 
his  wages,  to  deprive  him  of  hope,  and  degrade  him  into  the 
utmost  poverty."  And  read  that  splendid  little  hook, -Dark- 
ness aiid  Daivn,^  written  by  a  Christian  Englishman,  and  its 
brilliantly  scathing  denunciation  of  the  English  middle 
classes  ("whose  hell  is  :  not  to  make  money,"  according  to 
Carlyle).  Read  how  they  hitched  women  and  babes  to  the 
machinery  of  production,  invaded  and  broke  up  the  flxmily 
circle,  introduced  perilous  and  deadly  conditions  of  labor, 
deformed  the  human  frame,  inoculated  the  human  body 
with  trade  diseases  from  dust  of  steel,  of  flint,  of  rags,  of 
coal,  from  vapors  of  lead,  gas,  chlorine,  acids,  and  muti- 
lated the  bodies  of  the  workers  with  trade  appliances,  with 
bands,  wheels,  and  unprotected  machinery ;  read  how  they 
cut  wages  down  to  the  finest  point,  stretched  the  working 
hours,  "  cropped  "  the  dinner  hours,  and  paid  the  serfs  in 
"  truck." 

The  I''rcn(h  followed  this  example,  did  even  worse  ;  for 
while  the  British  plutocrats  despised  llieir  working  classes, 
the  French  honri::;coisic  manifested  absolute  Jiatrcd  for  theirs. 
The  I^nglish  at  least  passed  a  poor-law,  the  French  iicsccudcd 
lo  tlic  /oii'csf  Clinics. 

One  thuig  that  proves  this  charge  is  the  sale  of  the 
national  estates.  This  whole  damning  record  of  crimes, 
committed  right  after  their  coming  into  ])ower,  which  now  has 
been  brought  to  light,  explains  the  surprising  i)olitical  somer- 
saults of  the  bourgeoisie  immediately  after  the  Revolution. 

•  I'liblihlicil  by  Ktjjaii  I'aul  &  Co.,  Patcrnoslcr  Square,  London. 


1792]  DOIXCS  OF  THE  ''  BOURGEOISFEr  67 


Historians  have  apijlaudcd  the  expropriation  of  clergy 
and  nobles,  without  inquiring  into  whose  liands  their  estates 
fell..  They  tell  of  discourses,  battles,  constitutions,  and 
decrees,  of  every  thing  that  dazzles ;  but  have  been  silent  as 
to  the  uninterrupted  series  of  feverish,  furious  sales,  —  sales 
amounting  to  milliards  of  francs,  —  not  of  course  to  those 
who  had  only  labor  to  give  in  exchange,  but  to  those  able 
to  pay  cash,  and  pay  quickly  —  or,  who  pretended  to  be 
able.  And  if  occasionally  some  patriotic  voice  was  raised 
in  favor  of  the  proletariat,  the  jobbers  and  financiers  never 
failed  to  evoke  the  spectre  of  "  agrarian  law." 

The  first  lands  confiscated  were,  as  we  saw,  those  of  the 
clergy,  valued  at  that  time  at  four  hundred  million  dollars. 
They  consisted  of  rectories,  priories,  convents,  chapels, 
seminaries,  castles,  farmhouses,  vineyards,  forests,  etc.  First 
they  talked  of  selling  eighty  million  dollars  worth,  to  pay 
the  public  debt,  that  is  to  say,  to  satisfy  bankers  and 
capitalists ;  at  length  they  resolved  to  sell  three  hundred 
and  seventy-five  million  dollars  worth  :  but  not  a  sou  was 
appropriated  to  the  poor,  of  whom  yet  there  were  a  hundred 
thousand  in  charity-houses  in  the  large  cities  alone.  These 
lands  w^ere  bought  up  in  the  course  of  a  couple  of  years,  in 
large  blocks,  by  companies,  or,  as  we  should  say  now,  syndi- 
cates, of  speculators  and  capitalists,  who  of  course  killed  off 
competition  by  people  of  small  means  ;  and  so  raging  was 
the  fever,  that  much  land  was  sold  which  was  not  for  sale  at 
all.  Now,  observe  this  :  it  was  easy  enough  for  these  syndi- 
cates to  buy,  for  only  twelve  per  cent  was  to  be  paid  within 
a  short  time  after  the  sale  ;  the  rest  might  have  several  years 
to  run.  Thus  it  happened  that  the  first  terms  arrived  at 
the  commencement  of  1792.  Then  considerable  sums  were 
due,  naturally,  because  heavy  purchases  had  been  made. 
But  the  flow  of  money  into  the  nation's  coffers  was  very 
slow,  and  finally  slojjped  entirely.     The  speculators,  though 


68  THE  MIDDLE-CLASS  REGIME.        [Oct.  .o, 

in  possession  of  the  lands,  and  drawing  revenues  from  them, 
gave  the  course  of  the  Revohition  as  an  excuse,  and,  that 
it  might  be  an  effective  excuse,  did  considerable  towards 
fomenting  the  troubles  and  violence  of  this  year.  This,  then, 
was  the  first  swindle.  They  had  four  hundred  million  dol- 
lars worth  of  lantl,  for  which  they  as  a  rule  had  paid  but 
twelve  per  cent  of  its  value  ;  we  shall  afterwards  see  how 
audacious  they  became  during  the  following  year. 

After  Aug.  lo,  to  be  told  of  in  the  next  chapter.,  two 
other  immense  batches  of  lands  were  added  to  the  stock  from 
which  to  plunder,  —  the  communal  lands,  and  the  estates 
of  the  emigrants.  As  the  working-class  greatly  helped  the 
middle  class  to  the  successful  issue  of  that  day,  it  was  re- 
solved immediately  after  harvest  to  distribute  the  communal 
lands  —  comprising  about  one-tenth  of  all  the  soil  of  France 
—  amongst  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  respective  communes  ; 
and  also,  that  the  estates  of  the  emigrants  should  be  divided 
into  small  lots,  and  sold  to  the  poor  on  redeemable  ground- 
rents.  But  the  middle  classes  knew  how  to  circumvent 
all  that.  On  the  loth  of  October,  1792,  the  Convention 
(which  we  shall  see  by  and  by  was  dominated  at  first  by  the 
plutocrats)  resolved  to  defer  the  distribution  of  the  com- 
munal lands,  "as  it  would  in\'olve  such  an  innnense  amount 
of  labor ;  "  and  in  regard  to  the  ])roperty  of  the  emigrants 
it  determined  to  dispose,  for  tlie  time  being,  but  of  the  per- 
sonal property.  This  latter  was  auctioned  off  with  vigor,  so 
that  in  less  than  a  month  thereafter  the  rich  and  costly 
beds,  mirrors,  paintings,  bureaus,  billiards,  etc.,  of  the 
nobility  adorned  the  mansions  of  the  money-aristocracy. 
A  knowledge  of  these  doings  will  very  much  explain  the 
political  events  that  are  to  be  related,  —  explain  to  a  great 
extent  Marat  and  Hubert. 

Of  course  these  nefarious  speculations  were  not  limited 
to  land.     Speculators  and  stock-jobbers  are  never  restrained 


1792 


DOINGS  OF   THE  ''  BOURGEOISIEr 


69 


by  the  sentiments  that  move  other  men.  They  were,  all 
these  first  years  of  the  Revolution,  notoriously  and  defiantly 
making  "  corners  "  in  corn  and  other  articles  of  food,  and 
thereby  caused  those  horrible  famines  that  decimated  the 
Parisians  regularly  every  winter,  except  one  sole  winter  when 
the  Jacobins,  the  Mountain  party,  were  in  power. 

These  are  the  deeds  of  the  French  bourgeoisie,  when  first 
they  step  upon  the  scene  as  masters.  Ah,  those  noble,  gen- 
erous thinkers  Diderot,  Rousseau,  and  others,  their  teachers, 
who  had  prepared  a  way  for  their  advent,  and  prayed  for 
it,  in  their  way,  as  the  dawn  of  a  new  golden  age,  had 
never  dreamt  that  such  rascalities  would  be  the  immediate 
result.  And  the  record  becomes  more  and  more  damning  as 
we  proceed,  even  unto  our  days.  The  steady  pursuit  of  the 
French  bourgeoisie  is  to  fill  their  felonious  pockets  with  gold, 
coined  out  of  the  sweat  and  blood  of  their  helpless  ill- 
starred  brethren,  —  not  in  truth  "brethren"  in  their  eyes, 
but  a  hated  "lower  class."  Is  it  a  wonder,  if  these  hate 
them  in  return  ? 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE   COUNTER-REVOLUTION   CRUSHED. 
Oct.  1,  1791,  to  Jau.  21,  1793. 

"  Tu  vcrras  la  Rcvolte,  aux  poings  ensanglantes, 

Tenir  a  ton  chevet  ses  flambeaux  agitcs! 
{"  Thou  shall  sec  Revolt,  luith  bloody  fists. 

Hold  flaring  torches  at  thy  bedside!  ")  —  Didekot. 

Conspiracy.  —  Aug.  lo.  —  Invasion.  —  September  Massacres.  —  War 
OF  Propaganda. — Louis'  Head  "a  Gage  of  Battle." 

THE  Legislative  Body,  under  the  new  constitution,  met 
immediately  after  the  Constituent  Assembly,  on  Oct. 
I,  1791.  It  was  composed  wholly  of  new  men,  young  men, 
juiiidle-class  men.  It  was  decidedly  more  radical  than  its 
predecessor :  its  right  consisted  of  constitutional  royalists, 
its  left  of  republicans,  —  the  celebrated  Girondins,  who  were 
aspiring  lawyers  to  a  great  extent,  and  talkers,  some  of 
them  very  fine  talkers.  Its  short  existence  of  about  a  year 
was  spent  almost  entirely  in  defending  the  new  regime 
against  its  enemies. 

'I'he  emigration  had  made  alarming  progress.  The  King's 
two  brothers  and  the  Prince  of  Conde  had  protested  against 
his  acceptance  of  the  constitution,  asserting  that  he  hail  no 
power  to  alienate  the  rights  of  the  ancient  monarchy. 

The  ambassadors  of  the  emigrants  were  received  by 
foreign  governments,  wliile  those  of  the  actual  iM-cnch  (lov- 
ernment  were  either  sent  back,  or  contemptuously  received, 
or  in  some  instances  even  imprisoned  ;  and  French  travellers 
and  mercliants,  suspected  of  palriulism  and  oi  supporting  the 

70 


1792.]  CONSPIRACY.  71 

Revolution,  were  suljjected  to  all  sorts  of  indignities  all  over 
Europe.  Yet  even  these  annoyances  contributed  to  the 
march  of  the  Revolution,  for  they  led  the  Legislature  at 
last  to  confiscate  the  property  of  the  emigrants,  and  thus 
added  considerably  to  the  basis  of  the  assigiiais,  —  and  also 
to  the  fund  to  plunder  from. 

Meanwhile,  the  Emperor  of  Austria  and  the  King  of 
Prussia,  incited  by  the  King's  brothers,  concentrated  their 
forces  nearer  and  nearer  the  French  frontiers.  The  King 
and  Queen  of  France  themselves  conspired  with  the  for- 
eigners. 

Louis  wrote  on  the  3d  of  December,  1791,  to  the  em- 
jieror,  )\\aX,  for  recovering  his  absolute  power,  he  had  nothing 
else  to  trust  to  than  an  unsuccessful  war  on  the  part  of 
France  ;  and  the  Queen  in  March,  1792,  comm1.micated  the 
Frencli  plan  of  campaign  to  the  prospective  enemy.  She 
wrote  to  ALircy,  her  Austrian  confidant :  "  Dumouriez,"  at 
that  time  the  Girondin  French  minister  of  war,  "  having  no 
longer  a  doubt  that  the  powers  have  come  to  an  agreement 
as  to  the  march  of  their  troops,  has  now  the  intention  of 
commencing  the  war  by  an  attack  on  Savoy,  and  another  on 
the  country  surrounding  Liege.  It  is  the  army  of  Lafayette 
that  is  to  make  the  latter  attack  :  so  the  council  has  resolved 
yesterday,  and  it  is  well  to  know  the  plans,  in  order  to  put 
ourselves  on  guard,  and  take  all  necessary  measures.  Ac- 
cording to  all  appearances,  this  will  have  to  be  done  quickly." 

And  then,  on  July  25,  1792,  appeared  that  ill-starred, 
famous,  or  infamous,  manifesto,  dated  at  Coblentz,  and 
signed  by  the  Duke  of  Brunswick,  generalissimo  of  the 
allied  forces,  which  said  :  — 

"  Those  of  the  French  National  Guards  who  fight  against 
the  troops  of  the  allied  courts,  and  who  shall  be  taken  with 
arms  in  their  hands,  will  be  punished  as  rebels  against  their 
King. 


^2   THE  COUNTER-RF.VOLUTION  CRUSHED.  IJuiy  25, 

"The  inhabitants  of  all  cities,  towns,  and  villages  who 
shall  dare  to  oppose  the  troops  of  their  Imperial  and  Royal 
Majesties,  and  shall  shoot  on  them,  either  in  the  open  field, 
or  from  windows,  doors,  or  other  openings  of  their  houses, 
shall  be  punished  summarily,  according  to  all  the  rigor  of 
laws  of  war,  and  their  houses  demolished  or  burnt. 

"  The  city  of  Paris  and  all  its  inhabitants,  without  distinc- 
tion, are  warned  to  submit  immediately  to  the  King,  to  place 
that  prince  in  full  and  complete  liberty,  and  to  secure  to 
him,  and  to  all  the  royal  personages,  the  inviolability  which 
the  laws  of  nature  and  of  nations  demand  of  subjects  towards 
their  sovereign.  Their  Imperial  and  Royal  Majesties  make 
all  the  members  of  the  Legislature,  of  the  department,  of 
the  municipality,  and  of  the  National  Guard  of  Paris,  as 
well  as  justices  of  the  peace,  and  every  one  else  concerned, 
responsible  luitli  their  lieads  for  all  that  may  happen,  and 
will  have  them  tried  by  courts-martial,  without  hope  of 
pardon.  Further,  their  said  majesties  declare,  on  their 
words  as  Emperor  and  King,  that  if  the  palace  of  the  Tui- 
leries  be  forced  or  violated,  or  if  there  be  offered  the  least 
violence  and  outrage  to  the  persons  of  their  majesties  the 
King  and  Queen,  and  of  the  Royal  Family,  if  care  be  not 
taken  to  insure  their  security  and  liberty,  they  w'ill  execute  an 
exemplary  and  ever-memorable  vengeance,  and  deliver  Paris 
over  to  military  execution  and  total  destruction" 

Now,  in  all  candor,  is  it  a  wonder  that  Parisians, — 
Parisians,  remember,  the  most  excitable  population  on  the 
face  of  the  earth,  —  when  they  read  that  ''  manifesto,"  be- 
came enraged,  even  hysteric? 

And  yet  the  Parisians  did  not  know  the  worst.  They 
did  not  know  that  this  "  manifesto  "  was  the  work  of  their 
own  King,  Louis  XVI.;  that  it  was  draughted  from  in- 
structions confided  by  him  to  a  Cicnevese  journalist,  Mallet 
du  Pan  ;  and  that,  in  parlicuhir,  the  menace  against   Paris 


,792]  CONSPIRACY.  73 

was,  in  that  memorandum,  indicated  in  the  most  explicit 
manner. 

It  certainly  was  fatal  to  the  King,  his  cause,  and  his  party, 
that  he  had  to  form  all  hopes  of  saving  himself  on  the 
success  of  the  foreign  enemies  of  France. 

On  the  30th  of  July  the  allied  forces  enter  French  terri- 
tory. They  consist  of  fifty  thousand  Prussians,  in  the  finest 
condition,  and  supported  by  an  unusually  large  train,  both 
of  heavy  and  field  artillery,  and  with  the  King  in  person, 
accompanied  by  his  mistress,  among  them ;  furthermore, 
forty-five  thousand  Austrians,  the  greater  part  of  them 
veterans  from  the  Turkish  wars ;  next,  six  thousand  Hes- 
sians ;  and  lastly,  upwards  of  twelve  thousand  French  emi- 
grants, —  in  all,  a  hundred  and  thirteen  thousand  men. 

Now,  Danton  !  you  are  called  on  to  enter  on  the  scene, 
as  an  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  Power  behind  Evolu- 
tion, to  crush  this  counter-Revolution,  and  to  save  France 

and  the  Revolution  ! 

*         *         * 

That  the  insurrection  of  Aug.  lO  was  a  most  legitimate 
one,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  Here  was  the  new  France, 
the  Revolution,  in  a  life-and-death  struggle  with  the  whole 
ancient  regime,  and  there  were  the  constitutional  defenders 
of  that  new  France  in  league  with  the  invaders.  It  was  an 
imperious  necessity  to  overthrow  these  constituted  authorities, 
and  make  them  harmless ;  patriotism  demanded  it. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  insurrection  was  one  made  by 
the  whole  population  of  Paris  "  in  all  its  majesty."  This  is 
nonsense.  In  the  first  place,  a  very  definite  plan  was  fol- 
lowed, and  a  whole  people  can  lay  no  plan,  nor  secure 
unity  of  action ;  and,  next,  the  population  of  Paris  was  not 
very  "  majestic  "  at  that  moment ;  they  were  rather  in  that 
state  of  hysterics  which  may  be  described  as  hysteric  fear. 

No,  there  were  leaders  then  and  there  ;  and  the  success 


74   THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTIOX  CRTS  1 1  ED.    Ijuiy, 

was  due  to  the  leaders,  as,  indeed,  in  all  popular  move- 
ments, the  vast  majority  of  the  participants  are  mere  imita- 
tors. Danton,  undoubtedly,  was  the  soul  of  the  movement, 
th(nigh  it  is  difficult  to  prove  it,  for,  first,  it  was  the  out- 
come of  a  conspiracy  which  is  secret,  and  next,  as  already 
said,  he  never  wrote  ;  so  we  have,  unfortunately,  no  memoirs 
or  letters  from  him,  as  from  so  many  other  lesser  characters. 
But  he  was,  by  all  his  contemporaries,  looked  upon  as  the 
chief  of  that  insurrection ;  and  Madame  Robert,  who  spent 
the  night  of  it  in  Danton's  house,  anxious  about  the  safety 
of  her  husband,  said  to  Lucille  Desmoulins,  Camille's  wife  : 
"  But  this  Danton,  who  is  the  centre  of  this  thing  !  If  my 
husband  perishes,  I  am  that  kind  of  woman  that  I  shall  kill 
him." 

Of  course  he  had  co-workers,  also,  in  laying  the  plans. 
First,  there  were  the  members  of  his  club,  which  now  was 
joined  by  the  Alsatian  soldier  Westermann,  who  will  lead  the 
people  in  the  assault  farther  on  ;  then  there  was  a  com- 
mittee which  the  sections  had  appointed  to  demand  the 
King's  deposition  of  the  Legislature,  and  composed  of  most 
notable  men,  like  Destournelles,  director-general  of  the 
registry  ;  Cournand,  professor  of  literature  at  the  College 
of  France  ;  Restout,  member  of  the  Academy  of  Painting ; 
Chambon,  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Medicine  ;  and  more 
than  thirty  lawyers,  judges,  and  merchants  ;  then  the  Gi- 
rondin  members  of  the  Legislature  faithfully  abetted  him. 
One  of  these,  Barbaroux,  deputy  from  Marseilles,  called  on 
that  city  to  send  five  hundred  men  "  who  know  how  to  die  ;  " 
in  response  to  which  call,  three  times  five  hundred  deter- 
mined men  left  their  tools  and  their  forges,  and  started  on 
their  memorable  march  llirough  the  heart  of  France,  singing 
that  inspiriting  song,  just  composed  by  a  young  officer, 
Rouget  de  Lisle,  at  Strasl)Ourg,  and  ever  since  called  after 
them,   The  Mdiscillaisc.     This  song,  by  the  way,  is  not  a 


1792.]  AUGUST  TENTH.  75 

revolutionary  one  at  all,  nor  even  a  republican  song  (Rouget 
de  Lisle  broke  his  sword  when  he  heard  of  the  abolition  of 
royalty),  but  an  appeal  to  rise  to  repel  invasion.  How  their 
footfalls  through  France  are  listened  to  by  the  conspirators, 
for  the  insurrection  will  be  timed  by  their  arrival  !  This 
fact  alone,  that  these  strangers  were  so  very  much  needed, 
does  not  speak  very  highly  for  the  revolutionary  spirit  of  the 
Parisians  of  those  days.  At  last  they  arrive,  on  July  30,  a 
Sunday,  and  Danton  puts  them  into  quarters  in  his  district, 
near  his  club.  During  the  week  all  the  arrangements  for 
the  insurrection  are  then  made. 

Last  of  all,  Danton  prepares  himself  for  the  worst.  On 
the  Sunday  following  he  goes  to  Arcis-sur-Aube,  because, 
as  he  said  before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  "  Danton  is  a 
good  son.  I  wanted  to  say  good-by  to  ray  mother,  and  settle 
my  affairs."  He  settles  the  house  in  which  his  mother  lived 
on  her,  and  on  his  stepfather  if  the  latter  should  outlive 
her. 

At  midnight,  between  the  9th  and  loth  of  August,  the 
decisive  moment  had  arrived.  The  alarm-bell  sounded,  and 
ceased  not  the  whole  night.  It  was  a  warm,  beautiful,  star- 
lit night.  The  streets  were  crowded  with  dense  masses 
of  the  people.  With  the  first  sounds  of  the  bell,  delegates 
from  about  half  the  sections  of  Paris  wended  their  way  to- 
ward the  Hotel  de  Ville,  where  they  found  the  legal  muni- 
cipal body  in  session,  and  sullen.  The  members  of  this 
body  were  invited  to  disperse,  and  did  so  with  alacrity.  The 
delegates  took  their  vacant  places,  and  thus  the  first  revo- 
lutionary Commune  of  Paris  was  formed. 

The  next  important  step  taken  was  for  the  new  Commune 
to  summon  before  it  IMandat,  the  commandant  of  the  Na- 
tional Guards,  a  man  determined  to  defend  the  King's  palace 
and  the  King  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  and  who  had  disposed 
the  most  faithful  of  his  troops  to  the  best  advantage.     He 


•j6  riTE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.  lAug.io, 

obeyed,  ignorant  of  the  change  that  had  taken  place.  When 
he  appeared  he  was  put  under  arrest.  These  two  steps 
assured  the  success  of  the  insurrection. 

Danton,  who  had  been  present,  now  went  to  the  Chib  of 
the  Cordehers,  where  the  Marseillais  were  ready  and  waiting. 
He  electrified  them  with  these  few  words,  "  You  hear  the 
alarm-bell :  it  is  the  voice  of  the  people.  You  have  hastened 
from  the  extremity  of  the  empire  to  the  head  of  the  nation, 
which  is  menaced  by  the  conspiracies  of  despotism.  May 
that  bell  sound  the  last  hour  of  kings  !  To  arms,  and  ^a 
ira!  "  Scarcely  had  he  finished,  when  "  Qa  ira  "  shook  the 
very  vaults  of  the  building,  and  the  Marseillais  went  about 
their  business.  Danton  went  home  to  snatch  a  few  moments' 
sleep  with  his  clothes  on,  on  his  couch,  while  his  faithfully 
sympathetic  wife  watched  and  wept  beside  him.  It  was 
not  long  before  he  was  again  summoned  to  his  club. 

It  was  now  daybreak.  The  insurrectionists  were  poorly 
equipped,  mostly  with  pikes,  and,  to  tell  the  truth,  poor  in 
spirits.  Indeed,  it  was  necessary  that  Westermann  should 
take  Santerre,  the  redoubtable  commander  of  the  fiercest 
faubourg,  that  of  St".  Antoine,  by  the  throat,  and  with  drawn 
sabre  force  him  to  march.  The  Marsellais  were  the  only 
men  that  presented  any  military  appearance.  They  were 
all  now  marching  on  the  Tuileries.  There  was  one  inter- 
ested spectator,  —  Napoleon  Bonaparte.  He  was  of  opinion 
that  with  one  solid  regiment  he  could  have  dispersed  the 
whole  crowd,  as  no  doubt  he  could  have  done. 

The  royal  family  had  Swiss  mercenaries  and  some  gentle- 
men jKMisioners  to  defend  themselves  with.  When  Mandat's 
arrest  and  death  —  he  was  later  on,  in  being  taken  to  prison, 
killed  Ity  a  pistol-shot  from  a  bystander  —  were  learned, 
Louis  was  advised  not  to  attempt  any  defence  ;  so  at  seven 
in  the  morning  he  collected  his  family  around  him,  said 
"  tnarchons,"  and  all  marched  to  the  hall  of  the  Legislature, 


1792.]  AUGUST  TENTH.  77 

under  whose  protection  he  placed  liimself  and  family.  They 
were  temporarily  accoinmodatcd  with  a  small  /r'^i,r  in  the 
gallery,  where  the  King  soon  was  engaged  in  his  usual  morn- 
ing occupation,  —  eating  a  roast  chicken. 

The  gentlemen  who  had  gathered  around  their  King  for 
his  defence  escaped  from  the  palace  by  various  exits.  But 
it  was  a  great,  great  pity  that  the  King  did  not,  before 
leaving,  order  the  Swiss  not  to  resist ;  for  just  now,  when 
the  whole  object  of  the  insurrection  had  been  gained,  the 
insurrectionists  reached  the  palace  and  demanded  access. 
It  was  refused.  Westermann  and  the  Marseillais  tried  per- 
suasive words,  but  in  vain.  Somehow,  then,  some  shots  hap- 
pened to  go  off,  which  rent  holes  in  the  roof  of  the  palace  ; 
and  immediately  the  Swiss  answered  with  a  discharge  of 
musketry,  which  left  a  great  number  of  patriots  dead  or 
dying. 

And  now  commenced  a  terrible  battle.  Even  Mandat's 
faithful  guards  took  sides  against  the  Swiss.  The  Marseillais 
fought  most  gallantly.  Each,  as  he  fell,  bequeathed  his  gun 
to  his  comrades,  and  pointed  to  the  pockets  where  his  last 
cartridges  were  ;  and  dying  lips  cried  out,  "  Revenge  us  !  " 
There  were  twelve  hundred  Swiss  defenders,  and  but  a  very 
few  were  taken  prisoners. 

Thus  ended  the  royalty  of  Louis  XVI.,  and  this  was  the 
answer  to  Brunswick's  "  manifesto."  And  now  were 

found  among  the  King's  papers  indubitable  proofs  of  Mira- 
heau's  treason  to  the  popular  cause.  His  body  had  been 
taken  to  the  Pantheon  accompanied  by  a  whole  people  : 
his  bones  were  now  soon  to  be  ejected  ignominiously  from 
the  national  temple.  But  the  ivorsf  was,  that  the  people 
became  savagely  suspicious,  and  turned  with  ever-growing 
confidence,  with  worship  even,  to  Robespierre,  the  incorrupt- 
ible. It  was  this  suspicion  of  capable  friends,  and  worshi[) 
of  imbecility  if  only  "  incorruptible,"  that  caused  all   the 


78  THE  COUXTER-RFA'OLUTIOX  CRUSHED.  [Aug.  n. 


sul)sc(iucnt  disasters  ;  and  should  be  a  great  warning  to  us, 
for  this  horrible,  unhealthy  suspicion  is  altogether  too  preva- 
lent with  us,  i.e.,  in  our  labor  parties.  Robespierre  was,  the 
day  after,  elected  a  member  of  the  Commune  by  one  of 
the  sections  that  had  been  unrepresented  during  the  night 
of  Aug.  10 ;  and  Marat,  the  suspicious  and  bloodthirsty 
Marat,  though  not  a  member,  also  installed  himself  in  its 
place  of  meeting  to  watch  and  direct. 

*         *         *  '' 

Danton  was  energetic  enough,  not  alone  to  make  the 
insurrection  a  success,  but  to  gather  all  the  fruits  of  the  vic- 
tory, and  bear  all  its  burdens.  At  ten  o'clock  the  next  day 
he  was  virtually  dictator.  The  Legislature,  by  222  out  of 
284  votes,  appointed  him  minister  of  justice. 

\Ve  can  have  no  better  comment  on  this  appointment 
than  the  words  of  the  celebrated  Girondin  and  philosopher, 
Condorcet,  written  while  he  was  wandering  about  proscribed 
and  devoted  to  the  guillotine,  and  Uanton  still  apparently 
in  power ;  — 

"They  have  reproached  me  for  voting  for  Danton  for 
minister  of  justice.  Here  are  my  reasons  :  It  was  necessary 
to  have  in  the  government  a  man  who  had  the  confidence 
of  those  who  had  just  overturned  the  throne  ;  a  man  who, 
by  his  ascendency,  could  keep  in  order  the  many  unruly 
instruments  of  a  Revolution  which  undoubtedly  was  useful, 
glorious,  and  necessary ;  a  man  with  such  talents  and  char- 
acter that  he  would  be  agreeable  to  his  fellow-ministers  and 
the  members  of  the  .Assembly.  Danton  alone  had  these 
qualities.  I  chose  him,  and  I  do  not  regret  it.  Perhaps 
he  deferred  too  much  to  popular  ideas,  and  carried  into 
public  affairs  too  much  the  people's  notions  ;  but  the  only 
thing  which,  in  times  of  revolution,  can  save  the  laws,  is, 
to  act  with  the  people  by  directing  it,  and  all  parties  who 
have  separated  themselves  from  the  i)eoj)le  have  ended  by 


Z792.]  INVASION.  79 

ruining  tlicmselves  and  the  people  at  the  same  time.  Be- 
sides, Danton  has  that  precious  quality  which  ordinary  men 
never  have,  of  neither  hating  nor  fearing  those  who  are 
wise,  talented,  and  virtuous." 

This  is  the  estimate  of  Danton  by  a  just  man. 

The  following  day  Danton  presents  himself  before  the 
Legislature  to  take  the  oath,  and  on  that  occasion  utters 
these  memorable  words :  "  Whenever  justice  regains  its 
regular  course,  popular  vengeance  should  cease.  I  engage 
myself  to  protect  those  within  your  jurisdiction.  I  shall 
march  at  their  head,  and  be  responsible  for  them."  "  They 
applaud,"  says  the  Moniteur  of  the  next  day.  Ah,  Danton, 
you  have  good  intentions,  but  you  will  find  you  have  taken 
too  great  an  engagement,  even  for  you  ! 

There  are  plenty  of  other  things  for  him  to  do.  The 
court  party  was  defeated,  but  not  vanquished.  All  the 
journals  of  the  day,  moreover,  agree  that  great  numbers 
of  provincials  were  flocking  to  Paris  from  all  sides.  None 
could  say  whether  it  was  the  advancing  enemy,  or  a  wish 
to  free  the  King,  that  moved  them.  The  suspicious  Parisians 
generally  said  to  one  another,  "  They  come  to  betray  us  the 
more  surely  when  the  enemy  is  before  our  gates." 

And  look  at  the  terrible  situation.  On  the  i8th  of 
August,  Lafayette  cowardly  deserts  his  camp  and  his  sol- 
diers. 

On  the  2  2d  the  Vendean  peasants  rise  in  insurrection. 
Eight  hundred  of  them  occupy  Chatillon,  crying,  "  Live  the 
King  !     Death  to  the  Parisians  !  " 

On  the  23d  the  Austrians  take  Longwy.  In  the  South- 
east the  French  territory  had  already  been  violated  by  the 
Sardinians. 

France  believed  itself  lost,  and  was  not  far  from  it. 

The  Girondins  were  in  power,  but  also  in  despair.  There 
was  only  Danton   self-confident,     lie   took  the   rudder  of 


So  THE  COUXTER-RFA'OLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Aug.  13. 

state  ;  lie  made  his  colleagues  into  his  clerks ;  he  imposed 
his  will  on  the  Girondin  ministers,  Roland,  Servan,  Lebrun  ; 
he  took  upon  himself  to  direct  foreign  affairs,  the  war-ofifice, 
the  ministry  of  the  interior,  besides  his  own  officers. 

There  is  ample  evidence  for  that.  Let  us  take  the  one 
witness  to  whom  are  due  nearly  all  the  bad  opinions  the 
world  has  had  of  Danton,  —  the  hysteric  recriminations  of 
the  wife  of  Minister  Roland,  of  that  Madame  Roland  who, 
for  some  time  after  Aug.  10,  fancied  herself  queeti  of 
France  :  — 

"  It  is  a  great  pity  that  the  Council  sliall  be  spoiled  by 
that  D.,  who  has  so  bad  a  reputation.  .  .  .  No  one  could 
show  a  greater  zeal,  a  greater  love  for  liberty,  a  more  lively 
desire  to  agree  with  his  colleagtics,  in  order  to  seit'e  it.  I 
looked  at  his  repulsive  face,  and  though  I  said  to  myself 
that  I  was  sure  of  nothing  against  him,  that  the  most  honest 
man  must,  in  times  like  these,  have  two  reputations,  I  yet 
could  not  imagine  an  honest  man  with  such  a  face.  .  .  . 
He  was  continually  in  the  7var  huj-eaux.'" 

And  he  himself  said  afterwards,  "  I  was  just  as  much  an 
adjunct  of  the  war-ofifice,  as  concerned  with  my  own  de- 
partment." 

What  then  did  he  do?  These  three  great  things:  He 
took  the  lead  in  crushing  the  counter- Revolution  in  Paris, 
in  expelling  the  invading  enemy,  and  in  planting  the  re- 
public on  a  secure  foundation. 

Observe  the  scanty  means  at  his  disposal.  To  oppose  to 
the  disciplined  troops  of  the  allies,  the  French  had  mainly 
raw  recruits,  badly  equipped,  badly  commanded,  antl  who 
were  without  confidence  in  their  chiefs. 

A  year  afterwards  Danton  thus  described  the  situation  to 
the  Convention,  without  being  contradicted  :  "  Last  year, 
in  the  Ivxecutive  Council,  I  took,  on  my  own  responsibility, 
the  necessary  measures  to  infuse  into  the  i)eople  the  grand 


1792.  J  INVASION. 


impulse  to  march  to  the  frontiers.  .  .  ,  Let  me  remind  you 
of  the  terrible  Revolution  of  August.  The  whole  of  Paris 
was  then  on  fire.  The  Parisians  would  not  go  outside  of 
their  walls.  Excellent  patriots  feared  to  leave  their  hearth- 
stones, because  they  suspected  enemies  and  conspirators 
within.  I  have  myself  (for  sometimes  it  is  necessary  to 
speak  of  one's  self)  called,  I  say,  the  Executive  Council 
together,  and  with  them  the  heads  of  sections,  the  members 
of  the  Commune,  and  a  committee  of  the  Legislature.  We 
agreed  upon  the  measures  to  be  taken,  and  the  people 
seconded  our  efforts." 

Danton  was  very  modest  here.  This  is,  in  fact,  all  he 
has  himself  told  us  of  what  he  did.  We  must  gather  the 
rest  from  the  public  documents,  from  his  speeches,  and 
the  splendid  results  obtained. 

First,  then,  he  had  Dumouriez  appointed  commander-in- 
chief,  considering  him  rightly  the  ablest  general  France 
then  had. 

Paris  and  the  surrounding  departments  are  then  called 
on  immediately  to  furnish  fifty  thousand  men  ;  thirty  thou- 
sand of  these  to  depart  for  the  frontier,  and  twenty  thousand 
to  form  a  camp  outside  the  walls  of  Paris. 

But  the  Parisians  murmur,  "  Depart?  Yes,  we  shall  do 
so ;  but  first  we  want  to  be  assured  that  our  wives  and  chil- 
dren are  not  left  to  the  mercies  of  conspirators  within." 

Then  it  is,  in  the  evening  of  Aug.  28,  that  Danton  speaks 
these  weighty  words  in  the  Assembly  :  — 

"  The  executive  power  has  charged  me  to  tell  the  Legis- 
lature the  measures  we  have  taken  for  the  safety  of  the 
country.  I  shall  defend  these  measures  as  a  revolutionary 
minister.  Hitherto  we  have  made  war  in  the  sham  fashion 
of  Lafayette.  Our  warfare  is  to  be  a  more  terrible  one.  All 
that  can  materially  serve  us  in  our  situation  ought  to  be 
done.     The  executive  power  Ins  appointed  commissioners  to 


82  THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Aug.  ag, 

go  into  the  departnienls  and  innuence  oiiinion.  We  think 
that  you,  too,  should  appoint  delegates  to  accompany  ours, 
so  that  the  concert  of  the  representatives  of  the  two  author- 
ities may  have  its  due  effect. 

"  We  further  propose  to  you  to  authorize  the  municipalities, 
to  recruit  the  best  men  they  have,  and  equip  them  well. 

"  We  have  shut  the  gates  of  the  capital,  and  for  good  rea- 
sons. It  is  important  to  seize  all  conspirators,  but  there  are 
thirty  thousand  of  them.  It  is  necessary  that  they  be  airested 
to-morrow,  so  that  to-morrow  there  may  be  free  communi- 
cation between  Paris  and  all  the  rest  of  France. 

"  We  ask  of  you  authority  to  make  house-searches.  There 
ought  to  be  in  Paris  eighty  thousand  muskets  in  good  state. 
Well,  those  who  have  arms  should  fly  to  the  frontiers.  The 
nations  who  have  conciuered  Liberty  have  done  so  by  flying 
at  the  enemy.  What  would  France  say  if  Paris  should,  in 
stupor,  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  enemy  ? 

"  Numerous  forces  will  soon  be  assembled  here.  Only 
give  the  municipalities  authority  to  take  all  that  is  necessary 
on  engaging  themselves  to  indemnify  the  owners.  All  be- 
longs to  the  Fatherland  when  the  Fatherland  is  in  danger." 

These  are  the  two  ideas  that  form  the  insj)iration,  the 
flame,  of  Danton's  eloquence,  —  Liberty  and  Fatherland. 
It  is  by  these  ideas,  which  he  may  be  said  to  clothe  in  the 
form  of  religious  dogmas,  that  he  incites  his  people  to  sacri- 
fices. There  is  another  thing  worthy  of  notice  :  the  meas- 
ures he  proposes  are  always  such  as  should  be  done  now, 
immediately.  He  proposes  them  in  the  form  of  motions, 
they  become  laws  the  same  moment,  and  he  himself  causes 
them  to  be  instantly  executed. 

Thus  the  house-searches  take  place  the  very  same  night. 
We  can  form  an  idea  of  them  from  the  following  description 
by  Peltier,  a  royalist :  — 

"  Let  the  reader  fancy  to  himself  a  vast  metropolis,  the 


1792.]  INVASION.  83 

streets  of  which,  a  few  days  before,  were  alive  with  carriages 
and  citizens  constantly  passing  and  re-passing,  —  let  him 
fancy  to  himself,  I  say,  streets  so  populous  and  animated 
suddenly  struck  with  the  dead  silence  of  the  grave  before 
sunset  on  a  fine  summer  evening.  All  the  shops  are  shut ; 
everybody  retires  into  the  interior  of  his  house,  trembling 
for  life  and  property.  All  are  in  fearful  expectation  of  the 
events  of  a  night,  during  which  even  the  efforts  of  despair 
are  not  likely  to  afford  the  least  resource  to  any  individual. 
The  sole  object  of  these  '  domiciliary  visits,'  it  is  pretended, 
is  to  search  for  arms.  The  barriers,  however,  are  shut  and 
guarded  with  the  strictest  vigilance,  and  boats  are  stationed 
on  the  river  at  regular  distances,  filled  with  armed  men. 
Every  one  supposes  that  he  is  informed  against ;  everywhere 
persons  and  property  are  being  hidden  and  stowed  away ; 
everywhere  are  heard  tlie  interrupted  sounds  of  the  muffled 
hammer,  as  some  one,  with  cautious  knock,  is  completing  a 
hiding-place.  Roofs,  garrets,  sinks,  chimneys,  — all  are  just 
the  same  to  fear,  incapable  of  calculating  any  risk.  Here  a 
man  squeezed  up  behind  the  wainscot,  which  has  been  nailed 
back  on  him,  seems  to  form  a  part  of  the  wall ;  there  another 
is  suffocated,  between  fear  and  heat,  between  mattresses  ;  a 
third,  rolled  up  in  a  cask,  loses  all  sense  of  existence  by  the 
tension  of  his  sinews.  Fear  is  everywhere  stronger  than 
l)ain.  Men  tremble,  but  they  do  not  shed  tears ;  the  heart 
shivers,  the  eye  is  dull,  and  the  breast  contracted.  Women 
display  prodigies  of  tenderness  and  intrepidity.  It  was  by 
them  that  most  of  the  men  were  concealed.  It  was 

one  o'clock  in  the  morning  when  the  domiciliary  visits 
began.  Patrols,  consisting  each  of  sixty  pikemen,  were  in 
every  street.  The  nocturnal  tumult  of  so  many  armed 
men,  the  incessant  knocks  to  make  jieople  open  their  doors, 
the  crash  of  those  that  were  burst  off  tlieir  hinges,  and  the 
uproar  that  reigned  the  whole    night   lonj   in   the    public 


84   THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Sept.  2, 

houses,  formed  together  a  picture  that  never  will  be  effaced 
from  my  memory." 

The  result  was,  the  prisons  and  houses  of  detention  were 
filled  with  some  three  thousand  prisoners.  Of  course  it  was 
impossible  to  arrest  the  whole  batch  of  thirty  thousand  con- 
spirators of  whom  Danton  talked,  but  his  object  was  gained  : 
all  who  were  not  arrested  were  thoroughly  intimidated,  and 
by  that  blow  he  had  virtually  already  crushed  the  countcr- 
Revolution  inside  Paris. 

On  the  morning  of  the  following  Sunday,  Sept.  2,  the 
people  read  the  following  proclamation  by  the  Commune, 
posted  up  on  all  the  walls  of  Paris  :  — 

"  Citizens,  the  enemy  is  at  our  gates.  Verdun,  which  just 
now  detains  him,  can  hold  out  only  some  eight  days.  The 
citizens  who  defend  it  have  sworn  to  die  rather  than  surren- 
der ;  that  means  that  they  are  going  to  make  a  wall  around 
us  with  their  bodies.  It  is  your  duty  to  fly  to  their  assist- 
ance. Citizens,  march  immediately  under  your  flags  !  Come, 
let  us  meet  to-day  on  the  Champ  de  Mars,  and  form,  the 
very  same  moment,  an  army  of  sixty  thousand  men.  Let  us 
go  to  expire  under  the  blows  of  the  enemy,  or  to  exterminate 
him  under  ours." 

And  in  the  forenoon  of  the  same  day  a  committee  from 
the  Commune  appears  at  the  bar  of  the  Legislature,  and 
makes  the  communication  that  the  alarm-cannon  will  sound 
in  an  instant,  to  invite  all  patriotic  citizens  of  Paris  and  neigh- 
boring departments  to  be  on  the  Champ  de  Mars,  and  march 
against  the  enemy. 

The  Legislature  then,  on  the  proposition  of  Danton,  de- 
crees the  punishment  of  death  against  everybody  who,  pos- 
sessing arms,  shall  refuse  either  to  march  in  person  or  give 
up  the  arms. 

And  Danton  makes  a  last  effort  to  direct  the  popular 
feeling  against  the  invading  enemy  :  — 


1792.]  INVASION.  85 

"  Gentlemen,  it  is  a  satisfaction  to  the  ministers  of  a  free 
people  to  be  able  to  announce  to  you  tliat  our  fatlierland 
will  be  saved.  Everybody  is  ready,  and  burns  to  strike  the 
blow.  You  know  that  Verdun  is  not  yet  in  tlie  power  of 
the  enemy,  and  you  have  learnt  that  the  garrison  has  prom- 
ised to  immolate  the  first  one  who  proposes  to  surrender. 

"  A  part  of  our  people  will  go  to  the  frontier,  another  part 
will  go  outside  the  walls  of  our  city,  and  a  third  part  keep 
order  inside.  The  Commune  has  just  proclaimed,  in  a  sol- 
emn manner,  its  invitation  to  citizens  to  arm  and  march  to 
the  defence  of  our  country.  This  is  the  proper  time  for  you, 
gentlemen,  to  declare  that  the  capital  has  merited  well  of 
the  whole  of  France. 

"This  also  is  the  time  for  the  Legislature  to  constitute 
itself  into  a  committee  of  the  whole  for  war.  Assist  us  in 
directing  the  sublime  enthusiasm  of  the  people,  and  appoint 
delegates  who  will  second  us  in  our  grand  measures,  and 
send  out  couriers  to  all  departments  to  make  known  the 
decrees  you  will  render. 

"  The  cannon  you  will  hear  is  not  so  much  an  alarm-sig- 
nal. It  is  a  sign  to  charge  on  the  enemies  of  the  country. 
All  that  we  need  is  audacity,  again  audacity,  and  forever 
audacity,  and  our  country  is  saved." 

Alas  !  at  the  very  moment  when  Danton  spoke  these  words, 
by  which  he  simply  wanted  to  infuse  into  his  hearers  his  own 
self-confidence  and  courage,  as  he  so  often  did,  —  those  ter- 
rible murders,  of  which  Parisians  to  all  eternity  should  be 
ashamed,  were  being  committed  in  all  the  prisons.  We  shall 
immediately  see  that  Danton  had  no  part  in  them  at  all. 
He  was  the  reverse  of  cruel  and  bloodthirsty. 

These  September  massacres  made  all  his  colleagues, 
Roland  in  particular,  lose  their  heads.  They  demanded  the 
translation  of  the  government  to  Tours  or  Blois,  behind  the 
Loire. 


S6   THE   COUNTER-RF.  VOLUTION  CRUSHED.  \%<t^u 

Danton,  at  this  proposition,  shakes  his  Hon  head  :  — 

"  France  is  in  Paris.  To  abandon  Paris  is  to  deliver 
France  and  the  Revolution  to  our  enemies.  If  we  give 
way,  we  are  undone.  We  must  maintain  our  ground  by 
all  possible  means,  and  save  ourselves  by  audacity." 

Then  Danton  hurries  to  the  Champ  de  Mars,  where 
thousands  upon  thousands  of  soldiers  enroll  themselves  in 
the  armies.  What  language  he  spoke  there,  tradition  does 
not  tell  us  ;  but  we  know  it  was  his  words  that  vibrated 
throughout  France  from  Dunkirk  to  Marseilles,  and  that  in 
France  words  have  an  influence  and  a  power  to  move  that 
they  have  in  no  other  country.  How  he  could  move  his 
people,  is  well  shown  by  an  incident  that  must  have  occurred 
about  this  time  :  —  ' 

A  crowd  of  women,  mothers  and  wives  of  the  men  who 
had  gone  to  the  frontiers,  met  Danton  in  the  street,  and 
upbraided  him  for  causing  their  sons  and  husbands  to  ex- 
pose themselves  to  death  and  slaughter.  Danton  answered, 
and  spoke  of  the  fatherland,  to  whom  the  children  belong 
rather  than  to  father  and  mother.  He  spoke  with  such  a 
violent  tenderness  about  France,  while  the  tears  commenced 
to  run  down  that  rugged  face  of  his,  like  unto  a  dead  vol- 
cano, that  the  women  entirely  broke  down,  and  shed  tears 
themselves  for  France  rather  than  for  their  dear  ones. 

Danton  from  tliat  period,  and  ever  after,  stands  as  the 
embodiment  of  patriotism,  the  personificatiun  of  France  in 
danger  and  P'rance  saved. 

While,  however,  Danton  was  unceasingly  pushing  men  to 
the  frontiers,  the  allies  were  constantly  ap])roaching  Paris. 
Put  Dumouriez  had  so  manrcuvred  tliat  he  had  got  tlie  Prus- 
sians between  his  own  army  and  the  ca]")ital.  In  tliat  way 
the  chances  of  the  two  ])arties  had  become  about  equal.  The 
fate  of  the  Prussian  army  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  France 
uu  the  other,  seemed  lo  tlcpeml  on  the  outcome  of  a  battle 


179*.]  IXVASION.  S,y 

which  was  imminent  every  day.  But  the  Prussian  troops 
were  veterans,  while  the  French  were  raw  recruits.  Danton, 
therefore,  was  wilhng  to  avail  himself  of  any  means  to  avert 
the  danger.  He  resolved  to  negotiate ;  and  it  is  a  question 
whether  his  negotiations  or  recruiting  did  most  to  save 
France.  He  ordered  Dumouriez  to  enter  into  correspond- 
ence with  the  Duke  of  Brunswick  and  the  King  of  Prussia. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  the  latter  power  was  not  the 
national  enemy  of  France  that  it  has  now  become.  Austria, 
however,  was  the  hereditary  foe.  It  must  also  be  borne  in 
mind,  that  this  was  just  the  year  when  Poland  was  being 
partitioned  between  Prussia,  Austria,  and  Russia.  Danton, 
in  fact,  made  such  a  good  use  of  the  rivalry  of  the  allies  in 
the  East,  in  his  negotiations,  that  their  alliance  immediately 
commenced  to  loosen. 

Meanwhile  the  cannonade  at  Valmy  (so  called  because 
it  was  no  battle,  or  scarcely  a  skirmish)  occurred.  It  was 
an  effort  to  dislodge  the  French  from  one  of  their  positions, 
and  was  vnisuccessful.  On  the  same  day  the  King  of 
Prussia  learned  that  the  Convention  had  proclaimed  France 
a  republic ;  and  a  third  element  enters  into  play,  that  must 
not  be  omitted. 

An  anon}'mous  publication,  the  Memoirs  of  a  Statesman, 
long  supposed  to  be  by  the  Prince  of  Hardenberg,  but 
which,  at  all  events,  is  by  a  German  statesman,  and  which 
made  a  good  deal  of  noise  in  its  day,  contains  this  item  : 
"  The  Countess  of  Lichtenau,  the  King's  mistress,  yielding 
to  a  large  bribe  from  the  French  government,  employed  her 
too  powerful  influence  to  cause  the  King  to  retreat."  We 
know  that  Danton  liad  a  large  sum  of  secret-service  funds 
at  his  command,  for  which  he  afterwards  accounted  to  the 
council  of  ministers,  but  the  use  of  which  he  always  obsti- 
nately refused  publicly  to  disclose,  even  before  the  Revolu- 
tionary Tribunal ;  and  we  also  know  that  Danton  was  not 


88   THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTIOX  CRUSHED.  [Sept., 

above  corrupting  others  for  patriotic  purposes,  of  which 
more  anon. 

This  we  know,  that  whatever  the  motive,  and  in  spite  of 
the  entreaty  of  the  French  princes  to  march  on  Paris,  the 
King  of  Prussia,  on  the  29lh  of  September,  revoked  the 
orders  given  for  a  battle,  and  ordered  a  retreat.  The  Prus- 
sian army  folds  its  tents  and  marches  away,  —  a  most  sorry 
ending  to  their  bombastic  "  manifesto,"  —  the  French  army 
quietly  looking  on,  without  pursuing  or  harassing  it  in  any 
way,  to  the  great  scandal  of  Marat,  who  wanted  the  Prus- 
sians "  annihilated." 

The  French  Republic,  however,  owes  its  salvation  to  this 
retreat  of  the  Prussians.  As  soon  as  they  are  out  of  the 
country,  Dumouriez  commences  to  drive  back  the  Austrians, 
and  succeeds  so  well  that  a  week  after  there  is  not  an  enemy 
on  French  soil ;  so  that  Danton,  on  Oct.  4,  can  move  a 
declaration  in  the  Convention  that  "  the  fatherland  is  no 
more  in  danger." 

And  we  know,  lastly,  that  Danton  performed  herculean 
labors  in  the  way  of  securing  the  republic  on  firm  founda- 
tions. There  were  two  means  to  employ  for  that  purpose. 
One  was  to  replace  all  the  royal  functionaries  with  as  sound 
republicans  as  could  be  had,  which  was  done ;  the  other  was 
to  influence  the  opinion  of  the  country,  to  republicani/.e  it. 
We  have  already  heard  Danton  announce  that  the  Hxecutive 
Council  had  resolved  to  send  commissioners  to  all  the  depart- 
ments for  that  purpose,  and  ask  the  Legislature  to  do  like- 
wise. This  was  of  the  highest  importance,  for  it  had  already 
been  resolved  that  a  convention  should  immediately  be 
elected  to  finally  settle  the  government  of  France,  and  it  was 
naturally  desired  that  this  conveiition  should  be  republican. 

One  of  the  last  acts  of  the  Legislature  —  a  generous  act, 
without  ])recedent  —  was  to  confer  French  citizenshi])  on 
the  fcjllowing  foreigners:    Priestley,  I'aine,  IJcnlham,  W'ilber- 


1792.1  SErTEMBER  MASSACRES.  89 

force,  Clarkson,  Mackintosh,  David  Williams,  Gordon,  Ikuon 
de  Cloots,  Campe,  Corneille,  Pan,  Pestalozzi,  Washington, 
Hamilton,  Madison,  Klopstock,  Kosciusko,  and  Schiller. 
They  were  thus  qualified  to  be  elected  to  the  Convention. 

In  the  month  of  October,  Dumouriez  pays  a  visit  to  Paris, 
and  Danton  does  the  honors  of  the  young  republic  to  him 
at  the  Convention  and  at  the  Jacobin  Club.  Everywhere 
the   two  are  applauded   by  the  people  as  the   saviors  of 

France. 

*         *         * 

Danton  is  entirely  innocent  of  the  September  massacres. 
The  historians  who,  repeating  one  after  the  other,  have 
charged  him  even  with  being  an  instigator  of  them,  have 
been  cruelly  unjust. 

There  is  not  a  document,  not  an  order,  not  a  memoran- 
dum, not  a  letter  or  scrap  of  a  letter,  or  any  thing  that 
proves  this  charge,  or  in  any  way  connects  Danton  with  the 
crime  ;  further,  if  any  authority  was  connected  with  it,  it 
was  die  Commune,  but  Danton  had  resigned  his  prosecutor- 
ship  when  he  became  minister,  and  did  not  visit  the  Com- 
mune at  all  during  or  before  those  terrible  days,  having  his 
hands  full  at  the  Executive  Council ;  and  lastly,  what  is 
absolutely  conclusive,  when  in  1 796  certain  "  Septcinbri- 
sciirs,'"  as  they  were  called,  were  tried  and  condemned, 
Dantoii's  name  was  not  once  mentioned,  either  by  accusers, 
accused,  or  witnesses. 

\Vhat  happened  all  through  2d,  ^(.X,  4th,  and  5th  of  Sep- 
tember was  diis  :  — 

We  have  seen  the  Parisians  thrown  into  perfect  hysterics 
by  Brunswick's  manifesto,  and  the  entry  of  the  allies  on 
French  territory.  At  first,  the  dread  of  a  conspiracy  within 
Paris  was  added,  and  the  result  was  hysteric  terror.  When, 
by  Danton's  efforts,  that  dread  was  removed,  it  changed 
into  hysteric   rage  ;  and   that   rage   increased  as  volunteers 


90   THE  COUXTER-RF.  VOLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Sept.. 

from  the  departments  flocked  into  Paris,  and  the  enemy 
came  to  within  a  hundred  miles  of  the  capital.  Then  it 
was  that  these  volunteers  and  a  part  of  the  population  of 
Paris  put  to  death,  after  a  sort  of  judgment,  nearly  all  of  the 
counter-revolutionists  collected  in  the  prisons  and  houses 
of  detention,  after  the  "  domiciliary  visits,"  and  that  without 
either  the  rest  of  the  population,  or  the  National  Guards, 
or  the  army,  or  the  authorities  doing  any  thing  to  pre- 
vent it. 

Of  late  a  great  many  Frenchmen  have  been  at  consider- 
able trouble  to  prove  that  these  massacres  were  "  anony- 
mous ;  "  that  is  to  say,  that  they  were  not  the  work  of  any 
individual  or  individuals  in  particular,  but  that  they  were  the 
work  of  the  whole  population,  who  took  part  in  them  directly 
or  indirectly,  and  that  no  human  authority  would  have  been 
able  to  prevent  them. 

I  believe  that  is  a  true  explanation,  but  I  cannot  see  at  all 
how  that  makes  the  matter  better,  either  for  Parisians  or 
Frenchmen  ;  it  makes  it,  in  my  eyes,  rather  worse.  The 
fact  really  seems  to  be  this :  that  while  Frenchmen,  in 
ordinary  times,  are,  besides  being  a  proverbially  polite,  also 
an  exceedingly  generous  nation,  they,  when  excited,  fall  into 
two  groups,  one  exceedingly  cowardly  and  the  other  fiend- 
ishly cruel.  Cruel,  I  mean,  not  brutal,  like  British  roughs, 
who,  I  am  sure,  would  never  take  into  their  heads  to  scoop 
out  the  eyes  of  a  fallen  enemy  with  a  i)air  of  scissors,  as 
Frenchwomen  did  during  the  Revolution.  Now,  this  cruel 
j)orlion  needed  but  a  small  part  of  the  instigation  that  daily 
was  contained  in  Marat's  paper,  to  commit  the  murders  ;  and 
the  rest  were  in  such  cowardly  fear,  that,  not  to  speak  of 
trying  to  prevent  tliem,  ihey  dared  not  show  consternation, 
disapjjrobation,  but  even  ap])lauded — from  terror. 

And  under  these  circumstances,  without  any  evidence,  to 
have   buried    1  )anton   for  nearly  a  century   under  IJie   load 


1792- ]  SEPTEMBER  MASSACRES.  91 

of  infamy  of  having  instigated  these  outrages,  —  it  is  reall}- 
atrocious  ! 

But  why  did  he  not  prevent  them  ?  Was  he  not  minister 
of  justice? 

Well,  and  as  such  it  was  not  at  all,  in  spite  of  the  big  words 
he  spoke  on  taking  the  oath  of  office,  specially  within  his 
jurisdiction  to  prevent  them.  He  had,  as  such,  simply  to 
attend  to  the  administration  of  justice,  but  had  nothing  to 
do  tvith  the  maintenance  of  oi-der,  or  security  of  the  prisons. 
That  came  partly  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Commune  of 
Paris,  partly  of  the  minister  of  the  interior,  Roland.  Why 
did  not  Roland  do  sojnething  ?  He  used  none  of  the  means 
placed  at  his  disposal. 

As  to  the  Legislative  Body,  "  it  wanted  to  prevent  the 
slaughter,  and  it  could  not,''  says  Mignet ;  and  I  suppose 
that  is  the  fact. 

But  Danton  could,  nevertheless,  have  interposed  his  great 
influence  with  the  people,  and  tried  to  bring  them  to  reason. 
Yes,  of  course,  he,  knowing  the  perfect  uselessness  of  his 
efforts,  could  have  gone  and  deliberately  sacrificed  himself, 
or  at  least  sacrificed  all  his  influence,  and  made  himself 
impossible  as  the  savior  of  France,  the  republic,  and  the 
Revolution.  That  might  have  been  the  conduct  of  a  saint, 
but  not  of  a  wise  patriot ;  and  I  never  claim  for  Danton  that 
he  was  a  saint,  but  simply  a  whole,  honest  man. 

We  have  a  fact  to  prove  that  Danton  was  not  in  league 
with  the  "  Septembrisenisy  The  Commune  of  Paris  had 
ordered  Adrian  Duport,  an  ex-member  of  the  Constituent 
Assembly,  and  a  political  enemy  of  Danton,  to  be  arrested 
outside  of  the  territory  of  the  Commune,  and  brought  to 
Paris.  If  that  order  had  been  obeyed,  Duport  would  cer- 
tainly have  been  massacred.  As  soon  as  it  was  brought  to 
Danton's  notice,  he,  in  spite  of  repeated  re7nonstrances  front 
Marat  and  Billaud-  Varcnnes,  —  of  whom  we   shall   hear 


92    THE  COUNTER-RFA'OIMTIOX  C/U'SJUC/l  iSept., 

more  in  the  future,  —  promptly  and  energetically  directed, 
by  virtue  of  his  authority  as  minister  of  justice,  that  Duport 
should  not  be  taken  to  Paris,  but  tried  at  the  jurisdiction 
where  the  arrest  took  place.  That  was  done,  and  he  was 
acquitted. 

And  now,  again,  appears  Madame  Roland,  and  adds  her 
accusation  :  "  History  will  undoubtedly  preserve  the  infa- 
mous circular  of  the  Commune,  which  glorified  the  massacres 
of  September,  and  instigated  all  France  to  go  and  do  like- 
wise,—  circular  which  was  sent  out  in  profusion  under  the 
countersign  of  the  minister  of  justice." 

Yes,  history  has  preserved  it  fortunately ;  and  it  is  a  most 
infamous  circular,  dated  the  3d  of  September,  and  signed, 
among  others,  by  Marat  and  Billaud  :  but  Madame  Roland  is 
deceived  in  one  particular ;  it  does  not  bear  the  countersign 
of  Danton,  or  of  the  ministry  of  justice,  and  has  not  the 
name  of  Danton  anywhere. 

But  Alai-afs  name  is  there  :  he  certainly  instigated  suffi- 
ciently to  such  acts  in  general,  he  declared  himself  ready  to 
take  the  responsibility ;  so  let  him  have  it !  He  was  in  his 
person  the  very  embodiment  of  that  mixture  of  suspicion, 
terror,  and  cruelty  which  dominated  the  Parisians  ;  of  that 
mental  state  in  hysteric  women  who  one  moment  may  be 
terribly  frightened  by  a  little  animal,  and  the  next  moment, 
when  it  is  caught,  savagely  wring  its  neck.  That  he,  however, 
was  perfectly  honest  there  cannot  be  a  doubt ;  but  his  con- 
ceit, his  pretensions,  were  so  immoderate  as  to  amount  to 
positive  insanity.  He  liked  to  give  snatches  of  liiography 
of  himself  in  his  journal,  and  here  is  one  morsel  :  — 

"  From  my  inflmcy  T  have  been  consumed  with  a  yearning 
for  distinction.  In  all  my  studies  1  carry  along  with  me  a 
holy  respect  for  virtue,  and  my  dominant  })assion,  the  love 
for  renown.  I  dare  (latter  myself  tliat  I  have  not  missed 
my  aim,  judging  from  tlie  unworthy  persecution  to  which  I 


1792]  IVA7!  OF  PROPAGANDA. 


have  been  subjected  during  the  last  ten  years  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  as  soon  as  they 
learned  that  my  discoveries  on  light  upset  all  their  work 
during  the  last  century,  and  tliat  I  myself  had  no  wish  to 
enter  their  society  !  " 

But  when  he  was  assassinated,  next  year,  his  whole  wealth 
amounted  to  twenty-one  cents.  It  is  also  to  his  credit,  that 
he  did  not,  like  He'bert  later  on,  descend  to  addressing  the 
people  in  coarse  and  vulgar  language, 

Danton  despised  him.  Once  the  former  said,  "  I  declare 
to  the  Convention  that  I  by  no  means  like  the  individual 
Marat,  I  freely  avow  that  I  have  experienced  his  temper- 
ament, and  found  it  not  alone  volcanic  and  bitter,  but  un- 
sociable." And  on  another  occasion,  "  I  have  been  accused 
of  being  the  author  of  some  of  this  man's  [Marat's]  writings. 
I  call  your  presiding  officer  [the  Girondin  Petion]  to  witness. 
He  has  read  the  threatening  letter  sent  me  by  Marat ;  he  has 
overheard  an  altercation  which  took  place  between  us  at  the 
viairie.''  This  altercation  turned  upon  nothing  less  than  an 
order  of  arrest  issued  by  Marat,  during  the  days  of  Septem- 
ber, against  Roland,  which  Danton  tore  in  pieces,  declaring 
it  should  never  be  executed.  Indeed,  as  we  shall 

afterwards  see,  Danton's  humane  behavior  during  these 
September  days  may  precisely  be  what  mainly  caused  his 

downfall. 

*         *         * 

Now  the  National  Convention,  the  most  remarkable 
assembly  of  any  on  record,  meets  ;  and  the  Legislative  Body 
dissolves  on  Sept,  21,  1792,  Danton,  Herault  de  S^chelles, 
Camille  Desmoulins,  Fabre,  Robert,  Philip  (formerly  d'Or- 
leans,  now  Egalite),  Robespierre,  Marat,  Billaud-Varennes, 
with  others,  are  members  from  Paris  among  these  eight  hun- 
dred and  fifty  "  conventionals,"  Of  the  foreigners  on  whom 
French  citizenship  was  conferred,  Priestley,  Thomas  Paine, 


94    THE   COUNTER  REVOLUTIOX  CRUSHED.    [Oct., 

and  Baron  dc  Cloots  have  been  elected  meml)ers  by  various 
departments  ;  of  these  the  last  two  take  their  seats.  This  is 
the  most  radical  of  all  assemblies,  so  far ;  here  the  Girondins 
form  the  Right,  and  the  jjarty  of  Robespierre,  Marat,  and 
Billaud,  the  Jacobins,  or  the  Mountain,  the  Left.  The  mem- 
bers of  no  particular  convictions,  except  this,  that  they  were 
all  republicans,  form  the  Centre,  or  the  Plain,  and  make  the 
majority  by  supporting  either  the  Girondins  or  the  Mountain. 
Generally  they  go  with  the  former,  up  to  May  31.  They'are 
those  who  save  their  heads,  and  later  on  become  great  men, 
and  —  write  memoirs.  Danton,  at  first,  frequently  consti- 
tutes himself  leader  of  this  Plain,  and  tries,  in  that  capacity, 
to  reconcile  Right  and  Left. 

The  first  business  done  by  the  Convention  on  the  first  day 
of  its  session  —  the  day  of  the  autumnal  equinox,  by  the 
way  —  is  to  decree  the  abolition  of  royalty,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  French  Republic  ;  an  easy  thing  to  do,  since 
it  has  already  been  created,  and  a  few  days  more  will  see 
the  last  enemy  driven  from  French  soil.  On  the  same  day 
Danton  resigns  his  office  as  minister  of  justice. 

But  this  very  ease  with  which  France  had  got  rid  of  the 
invaders,  together  with  the  usual  French  worship  of  princi- 
ples, and  impatience  for  applying  them,  gave  rise  to  a  policy 
which  like  a  whirlwind  took  possession  of  the  Girondins, 
and,  to  some  extent,  of  the  Mountain  party,  and  ruled  the 
Convention  from  the  first  day  of  its  session,  throughout  1792, 
and  the  first  part  of  1793.  This  policy  was  the  so-called 
-d'.-ir  of  propaganda. 

The  whole  philosophy  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  been 
a  laying-down  of  "  principles,"  and  deductions  from  them. 
The  Constituent  Assembly  had  preceded  its  constitution 
witli  a  declaration  of  the  rights  of  man,  which  was  a  string 
of  such  "  principles,"  or  ideas,  evolved  out  of  the  philoso- 
phers' own  consciousness;  tlie  main  one  of  which  was  that 


1792.]  IVA/^  OF  PROPAGANDA.  95 

of  Rousseau's,  affirming  the  scnrrcigii/y  of  tlic  people,  which 
the  repubhc  had  now  for  the  first  time  really  realized. 

Since  these  "rights"  were  looked  upon  as  absolute  and 
universal,  belonging  to  all  mankind,  without  exception  of 
time  and  place,  the  conclusion  followed,  that  royalty  is 
everywhere  illegitimate,  and  against  nature,  a  tyranny  and  a 
usurpation  ;  and  that  it  is  the  duty  of  every  free  people  to 
overthrow  it  at  home,  and,  next,  to  assist  other  nations  in 
doing  likewise. 

The  principal  agitator  of  these  doctrines  was,  curiously 
enough,  a  Prussian,  a  millionnaire  and  a  nobleman,  —  that 
Baron  de  Cloots  whom  we  have  seen  elected  a  member  of 
the  Convention.  In  fact,  with  him  these  doctrines  con- 
stituted a  whole  system.  There  was  but  one  sovereign, 
Humanity ;  one  law,  the  Rights  of  Man ;  one  kind  of  gov- 
ernment, that  of  dividing  the  whole  earth  into  autonomous 
municipalities  and  communes,  with  Paris  for  centre.  It  will 
be  noticed  that  these  are  precisely  the  notions  of  our  anar- 
chists, who  have  received  them  in  true  apostolic  succession 
through  the  later  H^bertists,  from  Cloots.  It  is  really  curious 
that  such  crude  notions  could  take  the  whole  Convention, 
composed  of  educated  men,  by  storm ;  but,  as  a  fact,  they 
did,  with  the  exception  of  Danton  and  his  closer  friends. 
But  they,  apparently,  thought  it  impossible  for  some  time  to 
oppose  the  current,  for  they  kept  silence  ;  but  Danton,  nev- 
ertheless, as  we  shall  see  afterwards,  goes  on  negotiating  with 
foreign  powers  whenever  he  can  get  an  opportunity,  which 
is  in  flagrant  contradiction  with  the  doctrine,  which  does  not 
allow  of  any  parleying  with  "  tyrants."  And  we  shall  also 
see,  that,  as  soon  as  the  policy  commences  to  prove  mis- 
chievous to  the  interests  of  France,  Danton  courageously 
stems  the  tide,  and  timely  turns  it. 

But  at  the  opening  of  the  Convention,  when  patriotic  fer- 
vor was  at  its  highest,  and  the   French  armies  were  victo- 


96  THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Nov.  ig, 

riously  confronting  Belgium,  then  under  the  dominion  of 
Austria,  the  hereditary  foe  that  had  invaded  their  country, 
this  pohcy  of  armed  propaganda  seemed  very  dazzhng. 
Moreover,  the  Belgian  middle  classes,  speaking  the  French 
language,  had  naturally  become  infected  with  the  French  rev- 
olutionary ideas,  and  implored  French  intervention.  It  was 
therefore  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  Convention  should 
resolve  to  invade  and  free  Belgium.  One  battle,  that  of 
Jemappes,  won  by  Dumouriez,  settled  the  fate  of  the'' cam- 
paign. In  a  few  weeks  the  French  were  masters  of  the  whole 
country,  and  received  with  open  arms  by  its  middle  classes. 
At  the  same  time,  at  the  South-east,  a  French  army  occupies 
Savoy,  belonging  to  Sardinia,  without  a  blow,  and  is  received 
with  the  same  enthusiasm. 

Then  the  Convention  cannot  contain  itself,  but  goes  to 
work  to  pass,  unanimously  and  with  enthusiasm,  the  remark- 
able decree  of  Nov.  19,  1792,  which  is  a  most  complete 
and  energetic  legal  expression  of  this  anarchic  theory  and 
policy :  — 

"The  National  Convention  declares,  in  the  name  of  the 
French  nation,  that  it  offers  fraternity  and  support  to  all  na- 
tions who  wish  to  recover  their  liberty,  and  charges  the  exec- 
utive power  that  it  give  the  necessary  instructions  to  our 
generals,  that  they  may  give  assistance  to  such  nations,  and 
defend  all  citizens  who  have  been,  or  may  be,  liarmed  for 
their  devotion  to  liberty.  It  is  further  resolved  that  this 
resolution  shall  be  translated  and  printed  in  all  /angi/ages, 
and  then  distributed." 

Danton  was  present  at  this  extraordinary  session,  but  said 
nothing.  He  probably  thought  that  this  policy  would  not, 
for  Uie  time  being,  have  any  mischievous  consequences  for 
the  Revolution.  Shortly  after,  he  and  his  friend  Lacroix, 
and  a  couple  of  other  members,  are  sent  as  representatives  of 
the  Convention  into  Belgium,  to  look  after  the  necessities 


1792.]  IVAJ?  OF  PROPAGANDA.  97 


of  the  army  of  occupation,  and  inaugurate  the  new  govern- 
ment. 

But  it  was  not  long  before  it  became  evident  to  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  Convention,  and  especially  to  Cambon,  the 
celebrated  revolutionary  finance-minister,  that  —  what  had 
not  for  a  moment  occurred  to  Cloots  and  his  immediate 
disciples  —  this  "  war  of  propaganda  "  would,  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, be  a  costly  thing  for  France,  both  in  money 
and  men ;  that  she,  in  fact,  could  not,  however  generous  she 
might  feel,  support  its  burdens  alone.  Therefore  another 
decree  was  voted,  after  a  feverish  discussion,  on  the  15th  of 
December,  1792,  abolishing,  in  all  the  countries  "conquered 
for  liberty,"  all  feudal  rights,  duties,  taxes,  privileges,  and 
corporations,  and  directing  the  generals  to  take  and  hold, 
"as  pledge  for  the  costs  of  the  war,"  all  the  real  and  per- 
sonal property  belonging  to  the  treasury,  to  the  prince  and 
his  voluntary  adherents,  and  to  all  public  establishments  and 
religious  orders.  The  object  of  this  law  was  simply  the  same 
as  the  confiscation  of  the  estates  of  the  nobility  and  clergy 
in  France,  —  to  broaden  the  basis  of  the  assignats,  and 
thus  extend  their  credit ;  and,  next,  to  induce  the  protected 
nations  to  take  and  use  this  paper  money  as  their  currency, 
as  they  had  to  do  from  the  moment  their  own  public  revenues 
were  stopped. 

But,  as  said,  next  year  this  whole  policy  will  be  reversed. 
*         *         * 

At  the  same  time  Louis  XVI.  —  Louis  Capet,  as  he  is  now 
called  —  is  being  tried  by  the  Convention,  sentenced  to 
death,  and  executed  Jan.  21,  1793,  according  to  the  English 
precedent. 

A  member  of  the  Convention,  a  lawyer,  observed,  "  I  ex- 
pected to  find  here  an  assembly  of  judges,  and  I  find  an 
assembly  of  accusers."  Very  true  ;  and  this,  of  course,  set- 
tled Louis'  fate  beforehand.       No  doul)t  he  had  conspired 


98  THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.  [Jan  2t. 

against  France  ;  but  tliat  could  never  be  a  crime  in  his  eyes, 
whose  standpoint,  naturally,  was  that  of  Louis  XIV., — 
riitat,  c' est  mot,  "  I  am  the  State." 

The  execution  had  no  immediate  consequences  at  all. 
It  became  of  capital  importance  a  few  years  afterwards, 
when  the  fact,  whether  a  member  had  or  had  not  voted  the 
death  penalty,  became  the  test  of  "  civism,"  '  of  cjualifi- 
cation  for  becoming  a  member  of  the  government ;  which 
test,  undoubtedly,  contributed  considerably  to  defer  >  die 
accession  of  Louis  XVIII.  to  the  throne.  But  the  Revo- 
lution would,  probably,  have  run  about  the  same  course,  if 
Louis  XVI.  had  succeeded  in  escaping.  His  execution, 
however,  proved  this  much  :  that  the  Revolution  now  was 
strong  enough  to  carry  the  stroke,  and  that  the  counter- 
Revolution  within  was  thoroughly  crushed.  In  Danton's 
words,  "  the  tyrant's  head  was  thrown  as  a  gage  of  battle  to 
Europe." 

The  following  is  a  report  of  the  execution  in  the  Gazette 
de  France,  a  Parisian  daily  journal  of  the  period,  a  four-page 
(juarto  paper :  — 

"  The  tyrant  is  no  more.  A  terrible  example  has  been 
given  to  the  despots  of  the  world.  The  axe  of  justice  has 
struck  down  him  who  already  was  condemned  by  the  con- 
science of  the  French  people.  This  memorable  judgment 
rests  solely  on  the  responsibility  of  the  nation  itself,  which 
takes  this  responsibility  on  its  shoulders.  Its  adversaries 
will  never  have  their  last  hope  fulfilled,  —  that  of  one  day 
seeing  the  judgment  reversed  which  has  avenged  it.  '  The 
nation  knows  its  enemies,  —  the  kings  of  the  earth  ;  and  if 
they  pretend  to  demand  an  account  of  the  republic  for  a 
judgment  which,  by  executing  a  king,  has  placed  all  Jiuman- 
ity  on  an  equal  footing,  every  French  citizen  will  present 
himself  as  the  responsible  party. 

'  The  ijualily  of  being  ;i  good  cilizcn,  —  tlic  Jacoliin  version  of  altruism. 


1793.]  LOUIS'  EXECUTION.  99 

"The  f()lk)\ving  were  the  measures  that  were  taken  in  view 
of  the  execution  :  — 

"There  were  strong  detachments  of  artillery  in  all  the 
public  places,  and  strong  reserves  were  kept  in  the  various 
barracks. 

"  Twenty  citizens,  well  armed,  each  being  provided  with 
sixteen  cartridges,  had  been  chosen  by  each  section,  e\'ery 
one  of  them  being  vouched  for  as  an  excellent  patriot. 
These  formed  a  guard  of  twelve  hundred  men,  who  preceded 
and  followed  Louis  Capet. 

"  Between  eight  and  nine  in  the  morning  the  latter  seated 
himself  in  the  carriage  of  the  mayor,  who  accompanied  him, 
together  with  Edgeworth,  the  English  Catholic  priest,  whose 
attendance  he  had  asked  for. 

"  The  procession,  commanded  by  Major-Gen.  Santerre, 
followed  the  grand  boulevards  till  it  came  to  the  Place  de  la 
Revolution  [now  called  the  Place  de  la  Concorde].  Louis 
Capet  arrived  at  the  foot  of  the  scaffold  twenty  minutes 
past  ten.  It  seemed  as  if  he  wanted  to  address  the  people, 
when  a  rolling  of  the  drums  gave  the  signal  to  the  execu- 
tioner. At  twenty-two  minutes  past  ten  he  who  was  formerly 
king  was  no  more.  Deep  silence  and  perfect  stillness  reigned 
along  the  route  and  on  the  Place  de  la  Revolution.  When 
the  executioner  showed  the  severed  head  to  the  people,  cries 
of  '  Live  the  nation,'  '  Live  the  republic,'  were  heard  from 
all  sides.  At  several  points  were  overheard  these  remark- 
able words  :  '  We  wanted  to  be  friends  with  him,  and  he  did 
not  want  to  be  friends  with  us.' 

"  His  body  was  taken  to  the  parish  church  of  La  Made- 
leine, and  buried  with  religious  ceremonies  alongside  those 
Swiss  who  were  killed  during  the  loth  of  August." 

The  words  put  by  so  many  historians  into  the  mouth  of 
Abbe  P'dgeworth,  at  the  moment  of  the  knife  falling,  "  Son 
of  St.  Louis,  ascend  to  heaven  !  "  are  a  pure  invention. 


lOO   THE  COUNTER-REVOLUTION  CRUSHED.    [1793. 


The  Convention  held  its  sessi(,)ns  as  usual  this  day.  Shortly 
after  the  execution  the  Executive  Council  submitted  a  very 
laconic  report,  consisting  of  just  three  lines,  which  was 
adopted.  Immediately  thereafter  a  decree  was  passed,  that 
a  public  funeral  should  be  solemnized  the  following  day  over 
the  body  of  Lcpelletier,  a  member  of  the  Convention,  assas- 
sinated for  his  vote  in  favor  of  the  death  penalty  for  Louis  ; 
that  the  honors  of  a  burial  in  the  Pantheon  should  be  ac- 
corded to  it,  and  that  the  Convention  should  take  part  in  a 
body. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

ENERGY    OF   THE    YEAR    I. 
Jan.  32,  1793,  to  Sept.  31, 1793. 

"Mercier.  —  Have  you  tiiadc  a  pact  with  Victory? 
Bazire.  —  No,  but  we  have  made  a  pact  with  Death  .'" 

Revolutionary  Tribunal.  —  Committee  of  Public  Welfare. —  May 
31.  —  Danton  as  Statesman.  —  Absolute  Government.  —  Levy 
EN  Masse.  —  Danton's  Resignation. —  La  Carmagnole. 

THE  solemn  funeral  of  that  noble  Conventional,  Lepel- 
letier,  took  place  on  Jan.  22,  the  day  after  Louis'  exe- 
cution. The  streets  were  crowded.  The  whole  Convention 
and  vast  numbers  of  citizens  followed  to  the  national  temple 
the  body  of  that  very  rich,  very  benevolent,  and  very  popu- 
lar man,  who  had  spent  much  of  his  time  in  elaborating  a 
most  generous  scheme  of  popular  education,  which  later  on 
will  be  adopted  in  principle  by  the  Convention.  This 

solemnity  may  be  said  worthily  to  open  the  glorious  spring 
and  summer  of  the  wonderful  year  i  —  as  by  and  by  the 
period  from  Sept.  22,  1792,  to  Sept.  21,  1793,  will  be  styled, 
—  glorious  by  their  fiery  energy  and  unbroken  sunshine. 

Danton  had  of  course,  as  was  his  duty  as  a  representative 
of  the  Convention  in  Belgium,  faithfully  carried  out  its  two 
decrees  of  Nov.  19  and  Dec.  15,  1792  ;  he  had  also,  as  the 
Convention  had  ordered,  assembled  tlie  people  everywliere 
in  primary  meetings,  to  determine  on  their  future  govern- 
ment.    In  these  primary  assemblies  the  citizens  had  by  an 


103  ENERGY  OF   THE    YEAR   O.VE.  [Feb., 

ovcrwliclming  majority  voted  for  the  incorporation  of  their 
country  with  the  French  Republic.  In  consequence,  the  Con- 
vention, on  the  31st  of  January,  1793,  on  motion  of  Danton, 
decreed  the  annexation  of  Belgium  ;  and  immediately  there- 
upon Danton  and  Lacroix  were,  for  the  second  time,  sent 
into  the  annexed  province  as  Representatives  on  Mission, 
this  time  in  a  purely  political  capacity.  They  staid  there 
five  weeks.  Danton  seemed  on  his  return  to  be  a  more 
mature  statesman  than  before.  There  were  several  matters 
that  furnished  him  with  food  for  reflection,  down  in  the 
"Low  Countries." 

F'irst,  on  departini,^  from  Paris  he  left  his  beloved  wife, 
who  had  followed  his  career  step  by  step  with  such  anxiety, 
in  a  very  critical  condition,  and  on  the  point  of  giving  birlli 
to  his  second  son. 

Next,  on  F'eb.  i ,  the  day  after  his  departure  from  Paris,  the 
Convention  declared  war  against  Great  Britain,  of  which  in- 
tention he,  of  course,  was  cognizant.  This  power  had  already 
placed  herself  virtually  in  a  state  of  war  with  France  :  she  had, 
the  day  after  the  loth  of  August,  recalled  her  ambassador; 
she  detained  ships  loaded  with  corn  for  France,  in  violation 
of  treaty ;  she  had  prohibited  the  circulation  of  the  French 
assignais  within  her  borders;  lastly,  she  now  prepared  for 
open  war,  not  at  all  on  account  of  the  execution  of  Louis,  as 
she  pretended,  but  because  of  the  occupation  of  Belgium, 
which  threatened  her  commercial  interests.  The  oi)en 
accession  of  Great  Britain  to  the  coalition  immediately 
turned  the  tables  on  France,  as  we  shall  see ;  and  yet  shortly 
afterwards  the  Convention,  as  if  indifferent  whether  there 
was  one  enemy  more  or  less,  contemptuously  declared  war 
against  Spain  also. 

That,  however,  which  gave  most  fooil  for  serious  thought 
to  Danton,  was  the  fact  that  these  rich  middle  classes  of 
Belgium,  who  had  received  him  anil  his  colleagues  with  open 


1793.1  REVOLUTIOXARV  TRIPyUNAL.  103 

arms  tlic  first  lime  they  came,  this  time  showed  a  decided 
hostility,  and  were  evidently  ready  to  take  the  part  of  the 
enemy  if  France's  luck  should  turn  ;  and  he  soon  discovered 
the  reason,  to  wit,  that  the  French  commissioners  had  i)ul 
all  citizens,  rich  or  poor,  on  the  same  political  footing,  while 
they  had  assumed  that  they  would  be  permitted  to  rule. 

Danton  had  many  grave  discussions  with  Lacroix  on  these 
subjects,  laid  many  plans,  but  matured  particularly  two,  one 
political,  the  other  economical,  which  bore  fruit  in  the  future, 
as  we  shall  see. 

The  military  position,  meanwhile,  was  becoming  very 
critical  in  Belgium.  The  English  and  Manovcrians,  to  the 
number  of  forty  thousand,  had  rushed  to  the  assistance  of 
the  Germans,  and  the  French  in  consequence  had  to  dis- 
perse themselves  to  form  an  enormous  line  of  defence.  They 
were  steadily  being  driven  back.  Dumouriez  and  the  repre- 
sentatives almost  frantically  demanded  re-enforcements  of 
the  Convention,  where  the  Girondins  exercised  power,  as  we 
should  remember.  The  re-enforcements  were  promised,  but 
they  never  arrived. 

Danton  and  Lacroix  returned  to  Paris  on  the  8th  of 
March,  to  render  a  most  discouraging  report.  Danton 
found  his  wife  dead. 

Camille's  journal  contains  this  reference  to  her  death  : 
"  Danton  is  down  in  Belgium,  and  the  cowards  have  profited 
by  that  absence.  They  have  represented  him  as  pointing 
out  during  the  days  of  2d  and  3d  of  September  the  victims 
that  should  be  assassinated.  His  wife  has  received  her 
mortal  stroke  from  reading  in  the  journals  this  atrocious 
invention.  Those  who  know  how  much  this  woman  loved 
Danton  can  form  an  idea  of  her  sufferings.  Danton  was 
absent,  but  his  enemies  were  present  in  the  miserable  sheets 
that  tore  her  heart." 

She  was  already  buried  for  some  time,  but  he  must  see 


I04  ENERGY  OF  THE   YEAR  ONE.        [March  g, 

licr  once  more.  He  has  her  body  exhumetl  in  order  to  gaze 
upon  it ;  but  when  it  is  exposed,  he  actually  wildly  embraces 
it !  Nothing,  surely,  can  better  show  the  passionate  char- 
acter of  the  man. 

But  after  this,  he  again  becomes  the  patriot,  and  once 
more  rises  to  the  height  of  the  situation. 

The  next  day,  the  9th  of  March,  after  Lacroix  has  ex- 
plained the  situation,  Dan  ton  addresses  the  Convention  :  — 

"We  have  now  several  times  had  experience  of  the.char- 
acter  of  our  countrymen,  and  have  found  that  it  is  danger 
alone  that  can  rouse  all  their  energies.  AVell,  the  moment 
has  certainly  arrived.  You  must  cry  out  to  the  whole  of 
France,  '  If  you  do  not  fly  to  the  succor  of  your  brctlircn 
in  Belgium,  if  Dumouriez  be  surrounded,  if  his  army  be 
obliged  to  lay  down  arms,  who  can  calculate  the  terrible 
consequences  of  such  a  misfortune  ?  Our  republic  destroyed 
may  mean  the  death  and  destruction  of  six  hundred  thousand 
Frenchmen.' 

"  I  demand,  as  a  first  measure,  that  commissioners  be 
appointed  who  tliis  very  evening  shall  repair  to  all  the  various 
sections  of  Paris,  call  the  citizens  together,  make  them  take 
uj)  arms,  and  get  them  to  swear  by  their  liberty  that  tlicy 
will  fly  to  the  defence  of  Belgium.  The  whole  of  France  will 
feel  the  rebound  of  such  a  splendid  enthusiasm. 

"  1  must  add  this,  that  our  generals  are  not  so  much  to 
blame  as  is^supposed.  You  had  promised  them  that  by  the 
ist  of  February,  at  the  latest,  the  army  of  Belgium  should 
be  increased  by  thirty  thousand  men.  They  have  not  re- 
ceived one  man  of  these.  They  have  told  us  that  if  they  did 
not  get  re-enforcements  they  would  perhajjs  have  to  evacuate 
Belgium.  Let  us  hasten  to  repair  our  faults.  May  the  first 
success  of  the  enemy  serve,  as  was  the  case  last  year,  to 
rouse  the  nation  ! 

"I  move  that  commissipners  be  appointed  this  moment.''' 


1793]  REVOLUTIONARY  TRTBUNAL.  105 

That  is  Danton's  way  of  doing  it,  and  tlierein  precisely- 
lay  his  power.  He  does  not  give  his  countrymen  time  to 
brood  over  their  misfortunes,  and  thus  lose  heart.  He 
straightway  has  sojiicthing  for  them  to  do,  and  that  "this 
evening,"  "this  moment,"  "  instant/y." 

The  first  result  is,  as  usual,  a  proclamation  by  the  Com- 
mune, inspired  by  Danton  :  — 

"To  Arms!    Citizens,  to  Arms! 
"  If  you  wait  you  are  lost. 

"A  great  part  of  Belgium  is  invaded.  Aix-la-Chapclle,  Liege, 
Bruxelles,  are,  perhaps,  now  in  the  power  of  the  enemy. 

"  Parisians,  it  is  mainly  against  you  that  this  war  is  directed.  This 
campaign  must  decide  the  fate  of  the  world.  We  must  strike  terror 
into  the  kings  and  exterminate  them.  Men  of  July  14,  Oct.  5,  Aug.  10, 
awake  I 

"  Your  brothers,  your  sons,  pursued  by  the  enemy,  surrounded 
perhaps,  call  upon  you.     Arise  and  avenge  them  ! 

"  Bring  all  the  arms  you  have  with  you  to  the  sections.  Bring  all 
your  friends  with  you  I  Swear  to  save  the  fatherland!  Save  it! 
Death  to  him  who  shall  hesitate !  Leave  Paris  to-morrow  by  the 
thousands  !  Now  the  battle  is  waging  between  men  and  kings,  be- 
tween slavery  and  liberty. 

"THE   COMMUNE   OF   PARIS." 

Meanwhile  one  bad  report  follows  the  other.  Dumouriez 
has  been  obliged  to  raise  the  siege  of  Maestrict ;  he  writes 
that  the  only  means  of  saving  Belgium  is  to  invade  Holland. 

Again,  on  the  1 2th  of  March,  Danton  sounds  the  alarm  :  — 

"This  is  not  the  moment  to  examine  the  causes  of  our 
disasters,  but  promptly  to  apply  the  remedy.  When  a  house 
is  on  fire,  I  do  not  collar  the  rascals  who  steal  the  furniture, 
but  I  put  out  the  fire.  More  than  ever  you  must  be  con- 
vinced by  the  despatches  from  Dumouriez  that  you  have  not 
an  instant  to  lose  to  save  the  republic. 

"  Dumouriez  is  not  discouraged.  In  Holland  he  will  find 
provisions  in  plenty.     In  order  to  conquer  all  our  enemies 


I06  ENERGY  or  THE   YEAR  O.VE.      [March  12, 

he  needs  l)iit  Frenchmen,  and  France  is  full  of  them.  Do 
we  want  to  be  free?  If  we  do  not,  then  let  us  perish,  for 
we  ha\-e  sworn  so  :  if  we  do,  let  us  rush  to  defend  our  inde- 
pendence. Let  Holland  be  coneiuered  for  liberty,  and  even 
the  commercial  aristocracy  which  in  this  moment  dominates 
the  English  people,  will  rise  up  and  overthrow  this  stupid 
ministry,  which  believes  that  the  talents  of  the  ancient 
regime  can  stifle  the  genius  of  that  liberty  which  now  hovers 
over  France.  When  that  ministry  is  overthrown  in  the  very 
interests  of  commerce,  the  party  of  liberty  in  England  [Fox 
and  his  party]  will  come  again  to  the  surface,  for  it  is  by  no 
means  dead. 

"  Let,  then,  your  commissioners  set  out  for  the  depart- 
ments. Sustain  them  by  your  energy.  Let  them  depart 
this  evening,  this  very  nighf.  Let  them  say  to  the  rich, 
*  Either  the  aristocracy  of  Europe,  thrown  down  by  our 
efforts,  must  pay  our  debts,  or  you  must  do  it.  The  people 
has  only  blood,  and  it  is  prodigal  with  it ;  be  up,  then,  mis- 
erable men,  and  be  prodigal  with  your  riches  ! '  [Violent 
apj)lause.]  'What  !  you  have  a  whole  nation  for  lever,  and 
reason  for  fulcrum,  and  you  have  not  yet  overthrown  the 
world  !  [Still  more  applause.]  I  put  aside  all  private 
passions  as  totally  foreign  to  me  ;  I  know  only  passion  for 
the  public  good.  You  tire  me  with  your  personal  quarrels, 
instead  of  busying  yourselves  about  the  republic.  I  repu- 
diate you  all  as  traitors  to  the  fatherland.  What  do  I  care 
f(jr  my  reputation?  If  but  France  become  free,  let  my  name 
be  accursed !  ^Vhat  do  I  care  if  they  call  me  a  drinker 
of  blood?  Well,  let  us  drink  the  blood  of  the  enemies  of 
humanity,  if  so  it  must  be  ! 

"  Some  seem  to  fear  that  sending  some  of  us  away  as 
conmiissioners  may  weaken  one  or  the  other  party  in  the 
Convention.  What  vain  fears  !  The  position  of  the  masses 
is  a  most  cruel  one.     Our  paper  money  is  no  longer  at  par ; 


1793]  REVOLUTIOXARV  TRIBUNAL.  lO/ 

the  workman's  daily  wages  are  below  the  necessaries  of  life. 
We  have  to  find  a  great  corrective  remedy.  Let  us  conquer 
Holland  !  Let  us  bring  the  republican  party  in  England 
again  to  life  !  Let  us  cause  France  to  advance,  and  we 
shall  go  to  posterity  with  glory  !  Let  us  fulfil  our  grand 
destiny  !  No  debates,  no  quarrels,  and  the  fatherland  is 
saved  ! " 

That  was  Danton's  leading  idea  in  that  moment, — by 
carrying  the  war  into  Holland,  and  inflicting  severe  losses 
on  the  English,  to  enable  Fox  and  the  Whigs,  who  were 
ready  to  conclude  peace  with  France,  to  hurl  Pitt  and  the 
Tories  from  power. 

However,  amidst  this  feverish  activity,  Danton  is  haunted 
by  the  remembrance  of  the  terrible  days  of  last  September. 
He  is  anxious  to  deprive  the  populace  of  all  excuse  for  per- 
petrating any  more  lawless  murders,  before  they  hurl  them- 
selves against  the  enemies.  Therefore,  when,  at  the  close 
of  the  day,  the  Convention,  worn  out  by  excitement  and  dis- 
cussions, was  about  to  separate,  Danton  once  more  rushed  to 
the  Tribune,  and  commenced  with  his  stentorian  voice  :  — 

"  I  summon  all  good  citizens  not  to  leave  their  seats. 
[All  sit  down,  and  a  profound  silence  reigns,  adds  the 
report.]  What,  citizens  !  in  this  critical  moment,  when,  if 
Gen.  Miranda  be  beaten,  —  and  that  is  not  impossible,  — 
Dumouriez  will  be  obliged  to  lay  down  his  arms,  can  you 
adjourn  without  having  voted  the  great  measures  demanded 
by  the  public  w^elfare? 

"  Everywhere  the  enemies  of  liberty  raise  their  audacious 
heads.  There  is  nothing  more  difficult  than  to  define  a 
political  crime.  Surely,  then,  extraordinary  laws  are  needed 
to  frighten  malecontents,  and  to  strike  the  guilty.  I  see 
no  middle  way  between  ordinary  forms  and  a  Revolutionary 
Tril)unal  ;  and  as  some  in  this  assembly  have  ventured  to 
recall   those  bloody  da)s  that  have  torn  tlie  hearts    of  all 


Io8  ENERGY  OF  THE   YEAR  ONE.      [March  12, 

good  citizens,  I  now  declare,  that,  if  there  at  that  time  liad 
existed  a  tribunal,  the  people  whom  you  so  continually,  so 
cruelly  charge  with  those  days,  would  not  have  had  that 
blood  on  their  heads.  I  declare,  and  all  who  witnessed 
these  terrible  events  will  bear  me  out,  that  no  human  power 
could  have  stemmed  the  tide  of  national  vengeance. 

"  Let  us,  then,  do  now  what  the  Legislative  Body  in  its 
time  failed  to  do.  Let  us  organize  a  tribunal ;  not  a  good 
one,  —  that  is  impossible,  —  />i/t  the  least  bad  one  we^  can 
think  of,  so  that  the  sword  of  the  hiw  shall  be  suspended 
over  the  heads  of  all  who  are  guilty. 

*'  I  therefore  demand  that  a  Revolutionary  Tribunal  be 
organized  at  tJiis  sitting,  so  that  the  executive  power,  after 
we  have  re-organized  it,  be  possessed  of  all  the  retjuisite 
means  of  action  and  energy." 

He  spoke,  obser\'e,  of  the  "  tide  of  national  vengeance." 
Undoubtedly  in  these  words  he  gave  expression  to  his 
deepest  convictions  as  to  the  state  of  the  people's  mind  at 
the  time.  He  found  a  deep-seated  hatred  in  the  masses 
towards  their  former  rulers,  —  a  feeling  in  no  wise  of  his 
doing,  or  in  which  he  partook;  but  he  believed,  that,  in 
order  to  keep  the  reins  of  the  revolutionary  movement,  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  to  recognize  this  feeling  as  a  fact. 
The  best  thing,  then,  under  the  circumstances,  to  do,  was 
to  prevent  this  hatred  from  acting  blindly.  He  therefore 
intended  that  this  "national  vengeance"  sliould  exercise 
some  discretion,  some  choice,  in  regard  to  its  victims,  and  to 
that  end  he  did  the  best  he  knew. 

That  he  acted  in  good  faith,  and  that  he  was  himself  free 
from  these  miserable  vindictive  passions,  he  clearly  showed 
a  few  days  after  by  this  reproof:  "Citizens,  I  wish  you 
would  not  be  always  so  terribly  anxious  to  find  guilty  per- 
sons." Nevertheless,  the  day  will  come  for  Danton  to  ask 
pard(jn  of  (lod  and   men  for  having  created  this  tribunal. 


1793.]       COMMITTEE  OF  PUBLIC   WELFARE.        1 09 

He  gave  the  impulse  to  it ;  by  and  by  it  acquired  such  a 
momentum  that  he  could  not  stop  it  when  he  thouglit  it 
was  time.  But  the  question  still  remains,  whether  the 
establishment  of  this  tribunal  was  not,  at  the  time  and 
under  the  given  circumstances,  highly  expedient. 

These  propositions  of  Danton  were  adopted  under  the 
most  enthusiastic  applause  ;  and  that  evening  the  theatres 
were  closed,  and  a  black  flag  hoisted  on  the  Hotel  de  Ville 
as  a  sign  that  the  fatherland  was  in  danger. 
*  *  * 
But  at  the  very  same  sitting  that  brought  forth  the  above 
important  results,  Danton  had  made  another  far-reaching 
proposition.  We  heard  him  incidentally  speak  of  "re- 
organizing "  the  executive  power.  That  is  one  of  the  plans 
he  had  matured  down  in  Belgium ;  and  it  is  his  experience 
as  a  Representative  on  Mission  that  gave  rise  to  it,  and  the 
question  of  the  volunteers  furnished  the  principal  motive. 

We  have  seen  with  what  energy  Danton  had,  the  preced- 
ing year,  hurried  volunteers  to  the  front ;  with  what  alacrity 
the  people  had  responded.  It  was  these  volunteers  that 
had  defended  French  soil,  and  driven  the  enemy  out  of 
France ;  and  it  was  they,  for  the  greater  part,  that  had  in- 
vaded Belgium  and  Savoy.  Among  the  stirring  events  at 
the  close  of  1792,  none  was  more  remarkable  than  the  ease 
with  which  civilians,  without  military  training  or  discipline, 
had,  when  their  country  was  invaded,  and  its  regular  army 
disorganized  and  demoralized,  turned  soldiers.  But  the 
generals  and  their  staffs  on  the  frontiers  did  not  receive  the 
volunteers  with  open  arms.  These  generals,  of  whom  there ' 
were  eight,  —  and  of  whom  Dumouriez  was  undoubtedly 
the  ablest,  and  a  German,  ex-Prince  de  Hesse,  curiously 
enough,  the  most  devoted  to  the  Revolution,  —  all,  with  the 
exception  of  Westermann,  the  hero  of  Aug.  10,  belonged 
to  the  old  nobility  and  the  old  regime ;  and  so  did  their 


no  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.      [March  12, 


staffs.  No  wonder  they  constantly  (juarrelled  with  their 
revolutionary  superiors  in  Paris.  They  pretended  that  two 
years  were  needed  to  make  a  soldier;  while  the  republican 
chiefs  retorted,  "  Oh,  yes  !  two  years  in  peace  and  in  bar- 
racks;  but  three  months  are  enough  in  war,  and  in  front 
of  the  enemy."  These  generals  overwhelmed  the  ministry 
of  war  with  complaints  of  the  cowardice  and  the  lack  of 
discipline  pf  the  volunteers  ;  while  the  true  cause  of  their 
annoyance  was  the  republican  spirit  of  these  volunteers,  and 
the  real  trouble  the  insubordination,  the  intrigues,  and  aris- 
tocratic insolence  of  the  generals,  and  the  rapacity  and 
corruption  of  the  army  contractors.  For  these  volunteers 
that  had  been  rushing  to  the  front  since  the  month  of 
August,  in  response  to  the  call  of  the  Parisian  commis- 
sioners, with  what  clothes  they  had  on  their  bodies,  had 
passed  the  winter,  though  conquerors,  in  rags,"  without  shoes, 
often  without  bread,  and,  what  was  worse,  often  without 
weapons  and  ammunition.  When,  then,  on  top  of  that,  they 
were  despised  and  insulted  by  their  officers,  shot  without 
mercy  for  the  most  venial  fault,  and  placed  at  the  most 
exposed  posts  if  they  demanded  to  be  led  against  the  enemy, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  the  enthusiasm  of  some  among  them 
was  cooled. 

Yes,  the  contractors,  they  were  certainly  the  greediest  lot 
that  ever  was  seen.  They  evidently  looked  upon  the  new 
republic  as  the  golden  age  for  rascals ;  and  they  could  do 
pretty  much  as  they  pleased,  for  the  inspectors  and  quarter- 
masters, whose  duty  it  was  to  protect  the  soldiers,  nearly 
all  also  dated  from  the  old  regime,  despised  the  new,  and 
went  about  i)ublicly  saying  that  the  Convention  was  im- 
becile, —  which  was  true  to  some  extent  as  long  as  the 
Girondins  were  in  power,  —  and  that,  at  all  events,  the  new 
machinery  would  never  work.     And  so  the  contractors  stole 

'  Ilciicc  ihc  giajiliic  epithet,  sans-cnlottes,  "  Irouscrlcss." 


1793-1      COMMITTEE  OF  PUBLIC   WELFARE.        I  r  t 

and  divided,  —  stole  on  tlie  price,  the  quality,  and  quantity. 
They  bought  corn,  not  for  the  armies,  but  for  si)eculation, 
and  had  it  carried  all  over  France  at  public  expense.  At 
the  Army  of  the  Alps,  the  Jew,  Benjamin  Jacob,  charged 
thirty-four  cents  per  pound  for  meat, — just  double  the 
market  price,  —  and  declared  cynically,  that,  since  "morals" 
to  him  meant  to  gain  as  much  as  possible,  it  was  so  much 
the  worse  for  the  republic.  At  the  Army  of  the  North,  the 
priest  d'F^spagnac,  the  prince  of  stock-jobbers,  had  obtained 
the  contract  for  carting,  which  he  transferred  to  Masson  c^' 
Co.  for  a  consideration  of  some  thousands  of  francs  /<•/ 
day. 

And  the  ministry  of  war  itself  was  surrounded  and  manned 
with  rascals  from  the  old  regime.  Even  the  messengers 
managed  to  make  ten  thousand  francs  a  year.  It  was  im- 
possible to  approach  the  minister,  even  with  orders,  without 
paying  for  the  privilege.  When  he  made  an  appointment  it 
never  would  reach  the  citizen  selected,  before  somebody's 
palm  was  greased.  It  may  thus  be  comprehended  how  they 
had  to  bleed  who  solicited  places.  And  it  became  still  worse 
under  the  dominion  of  the  Girondins  in  the  Convention  ;  for 
every  day  they  arrived  with  their  pockets  full  of  petitions 
for  places  for  their  children,  fathers,  relatives,  and  friends,  or 
friends  of  their  mistresses. 

Meanwhile  the  generals  and  officers  at  the  front  corre- 
sponded with  their  noble  friends  in  the  enemy's  camp,  and 
snapped  their  fingers  at  the  minister  who  was  so  far  away, 
and  who  had  no  power  to  introduce  among  them  officers 
from  the  volunteers. 

There  certainly  was  need  for  "  re-organizing  the  executive 
power,"  and  this  is  Danton's  great  plan  in  the  political  field 
which  he  discussed  with  Lacroix  in  Belgium,  and  which  now, 
on  this  same  twelfth  day  of  March,  he  suggests.  It  is  a  plan 
so  oi)pose(l  to  the  cherished  notions  of  almost  ev.Tybody,  that 


112  EXERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.      [March  iS, 

he  ventures  to  bring  it  out  only  in  a  tentative  way,  and  tliat, 
even  while  yet  its  scope  is  but  half  understood,  it  fills  both 
Girondins  and  Mountain  with  alarm.  His  plan  is  to  elect, 
from  the  body  of  the  Convention,  a  committee  that  shall 
have  most  extraordinary  powers,  —  none  less  than  full  con- 
trol over  ministers,  generals,  and,  in  fact,  all  executive  offi- 
cers of  the  government.  It  is  the  only  one  of  Danton's  great 
propositions  that  is  not  accepted  on  the  spot.  It  is  referred 
to  a  committee  for  consideration,  and  about  three  weeks 
thereafter  we  shall  hear  more  of  it.  Meanwhile  much 
happens  that  makes  the  proposition  more  acceptable  to  the 
Convention,  and  which  also  greatly  influences  the  future  of 
France  and  of  Danton. 

Paris,  the  undaunted  capital,  in  the  days  immediately  fol- 
lowing this  stormy  session,  rushed  against  the  enemy.  Vol- 
unteers, upon  the  appeal  of  the  commissioners,  seemed  to 
rise  up  out  of  the  ground.  On  the  iSth  of  March  Danton 
and  Lacroix  were  sent,  for  the  third  and  last  time,  to  Bel- 
gium, in  order  to  try  by  their  i:)ersonal  efforts  to  bring  order 
into  affairs,  and  also  to  persuade  Dumouriez  to  retract  an 
insolent  letter  he  had  written  to  the  Convention,  but  which 
Danton  had  persuaded  the  Committee  on  Correspondence 
for  the  present  to  keep  secret.  He  felt  that  this  was  not 
the  time  when  France  could  dispense  with  the  general's 
talents. 

But  things  had  suddenly  taken  a  much  worse  turn.  Just  as 
Dumouriez  had,  by  the  one  battle  of  Jemappes,  concnicred 
Belgium,  so  he  had,  on  the  very  day  they  left  Paris,  by  one 
decisive  battle  at  Neerwinden,  against  the  Prince  of  Cobourg, 
lost  it.  The  representatives  met,  all  along  their  route,  large 
numljers  of  soldiers  who  were  deserting,  but  whose  flight 
they  succeeded  in  checking.  Danton  then  met  Dumouriez, 
and  succeeded  in  obtaining  from  him  a  few  lines,  praying 
the  Convention  to  await  his  i)crsonal  explanation  of  his  pre- 


1793-]       COMMITTEE   OF  PUBLIC  WELFARE.        II3 

vious  letter.  That  note  Danton  hatl  in  his  pocket  wlicn  he 
came  back  to  Paris  on  March  29.  But  meanwhile  the  Con- 
vention had  despatched  four  special  commissioners  to  arrest 
Dumouriez,  and  bring  him  to  Paris.  He  refused  to  be  ar- 
rested, threw  the  commissioners  into  prison,  and  fled  then 
himself  over  to  the  enemy.  But  not  a  single  one  of  his 
soldiers  could  he  prevail  upon  to  desert  with  him  :  they,  on 
the  contrary,  fired  after  him  as  he  sped  away,  but  without 
hitting  him. 

This  desertion  was  a  terrible  blow  to  France  and  to  Dan- 
ton.  The  worst  consequence  of  all  was  the  terrible  strength 
which  popular  suspicion,  first  aroused  by  the  discovery  of 
Mirabeau's  corruption,  now  attained  against  every  promi- 
nent man  except  Robespierre  and  Marat.  Their  popularity, 
indeed,  fed  upon  it,  —  especially  Marat's,  for  he  had  for  a  long 
time  prophesied  Dumouriez'  treason,  —  and  that  was  another 
disastrous  result.  There  is  this  to  be  said  in  favor  of  this 
general :  that,  up  to  the  moment  of  his  desertion,  he  had 
served  France  with  all  of  his  ability.  He  had  not  in  all  been 
loyal  to  the  Convention,  but  he  had  been  loyal  to  France,  — 
a  fact  in  his  favor,  which  those  who  compare  his  treason  to 
that  of  Bazaine  should  remember.  He  had  won  victories 
for  her  as  long  as  he  could  ;  and  now  at  last,  when  he  had 
to  give  way  to  superior  numbers,  he  simply  did  not  choose  to 
trust  his  head  to  the  Convention,  whose  Girondin  majority 
undoubtedly  had  contributed  to  his  reverses,  in  not  sending 
him  the  re-enforcements  that  had  been  promised  him,  and 
which  he  had  been  unceasingly  clamoring  for. 

But  now,  and  probably  in  consequence  of  these  very  disas- 
ters, Danton's  important  suggestion  comes  to  the  front.  On 
the  I  St  of  April,  Isnard,  a  Girondin,  reports,  from  the  com- 
mittee that  has  been  examining  it,  a  bill  which  creates  such 
an  executive  committee  as  Danton  proposed,  to  consist  of 
nine  members,  and  which  is  to  have  power  to  dismiss  any 


114  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.         [April  7. 

executive  or  ailministrative  agent,  of  whatever  character,  and 
wholly  control  them. 

Danton  thereupon  speaks  as  follows  :  — 

"We  need  an  extraordinary  extension  of  power,  and  strong 
measures,  to  save  the  Commonwealth.  It  is  necessary  to 
try  to  bring  an  agency  into  existence  that  shall  be  fatal  to 
kings.  We  all  have  come  to  the  conviction,  tliat  if  we  arc 
to  create  armies,  and  find  new,  able  chiefs  for  them,  a  power 
must  be  created,  always  subject  to  the  Convention;  and 
which  it  can  undo  when  it  pleases.  I  believe  that,  though 
a  republic  should  proscribe  dictators  and  decemvirs,  it 
nevertheless  has  the  right,  and  even  the  duty,  to  create,  on 
occasion,  a  terrible  authority.  Do  not  be  misled  by  fears  of 
usurpation  .'  Who,  among  us,  could  make  himself  a  usurper? 
Look  at  that  man  [Dumouriez],  who  has  won  victories  for 
France,  and  who  yet  has  turned  all  Frenchmen  against  him- 
self !  Let  us  unite  fraternally ;  it  is  needed  for  the  salvation 
of  us  all." 

By  "  proscribing  dictators  "  Danton  undoubtedly  meant 
irresponsihie  dictators.  This  very  proposition  of  his,  as  well 
as  one  greater  still  which  he  will  make  later  on,  clearly 
showed  that  democracy,  in  his  mind,  did  not  exclude  a  tem- 
porary virtual  dictatorship,  provided  the  dictator  was  made 
responsible  at  stated  times. 

A  few  days  after,  the  bill  was  made  a  law. 

What  an  important  measure  !  For  this  "  new  executive 
power,"  thereby  created,  is  to  become  the  terrible  Committee 
de  Salut  Public,  of  ''Public  Welfare,''  to  which  France  is 
indebted  for  its  victories  and  existence. 

Tliis  committee  was  first  composed  of  nine  members, 
periodically  re-elected.  On  April  7  the  -first  committee  was 
appointed,  and  remained  unchanged  for  three  months.  Its 
members  were  Danton,  Lacroix,  Treilhard,  Cambon,  Barere, 
and  four  others.     Danton  became,  by  tlic  unanimous  choice 


X793]  ^fAV  THTRTY-FIRST.  II5 

of  the  committee,  its  president,  and  thereby  was,  during  the 
summer  of  '93,  virtually  the  French  government.  While  he 
was  in  power,  no  one,  inside  or  outside  of  the  Convention, 
thought  the  hand  of  the  committee  too  heavy.  As  an  evi- 
dence of  his  mild  rule  may  be  noted  his  pleading  in  the  Con- 
vention, on  May  12,  for  the  Vendeans,  already  then  in  revolt : 
"  There  are  among  the  rebels  men  who  are  simply  misled. 
We  must  not  drive  these  to  despair.  I  demand  that  you 
order  that  the  severe  penalties  decreed  by  you  shall  ai:)ply 
only  to  those  who  have  commenced  or  fanned  the  revolt." 
It  was  so  ordered. 

By  these  various  measures,  as  also  by  the  diplomatic  nego- 
tiation, soon  to  be  mentioned,  which  Danton  carried  on,  tlie 
disasters  on  the  frontier  were  checked,  and  France  had  a 

breathing-spell. 

*         *         * 

We  now  come  to  what  is  known  as  the  revolution  of  the 
31st  of  May,  though  it  was  really  not  accomplislied  till  two 
days  afterwards,  the  2d  of  June ;  to  wit,  the  forcible  eject- 
ment of  thirty-two  Girondin  members  of  the  Convention, 
and  the  consequent  suspension  of  the  rule  of  the  Girondin 
party  and  of  the  plutocrats,  in  the  Convention  and  in 
France.     Danton  took  a  prominent  part  in  that  event  also. 

It  was  an  act  of  absolute  necessity.  As  Carlyle  says, 
"The  Convention  had  to  purge  out  its  argumentative  Gi- 
rondins  before  it  could  rule  at  all."  They  were  nothing  but 
talkers,  —  many  of  them  splendid  talkers,  undoubtedly,  but 
absolutely  incompetent  to  govern  France  in  such  a  critical 
state  of  affairs, — and  yet  they  positively  refused  to  allow 
those  who  were  competent,  to  do  the  work.  This  is  the 
most  damnable  part  of  the  indictment  against  them  :  that 
they  cared  nothing  for  the  Revolution  and  for  France  if 
they  could  not  be  masters,  and  carried  their  insensate 
opposition  to  such  an  extent  that  tlicy  did  not  recoil  from 


Il6  ENERGY  OF  THE   YEAR  ONE.         [May 31, 

raising  the  standard  of  open  revolt  when  they  had  been 
dethroned. 

The  Girondins  in  the  Convention  were,  as  we  have  seen, 
republican  middle-class  men,  many  of  them  lawyers.  As 
republicans  they  had  done  good  service,  in  company  with 
Danton,  in  establishing  the  republic ;  but  they  were  not 
democrats.  On  the  contrary,  they  felt  more  than  contempt, 
they  had  an  aversion,  for  the  masses,  who  filled  them  with 
terror.  They  had  none  of  the  effusive  warm-heartedness  of 
Diderot,  but  imitated  the  dazzling,  sneering  levity  of  Voltaire, 
which  they  carried  to  a,  for  serious  people,  most  offensive 
length,  on  preparing,  later  on,  for  the  scaffold.  Then,  as  true 
middle-class  men,  they  had  their  narrow  formulas  in  politics, 
horror  for  centralization ;  and  in  economics,  laissez-faire, 
unrestricted  private  enterprise,  —  formulas  which  they  would 
permit  nothing,  not  even  absolute  necessity,  to  set  aside  : 
and  yet  the  moment  had  just  come  when  these  formulas  had 
to  be  flung  aside  temporarily. 

The  immediate  cause  that  compelled  their  removal  was 
their  fanatical  hatred  of  the  Parisian  delegation,  and  espe- 
cially of  Danton.  They,  however,  had  no  reasonable  ground 
for  hating  him,  or  even  for  bearing  any  ill-will  to  him.  Dan- 
ton respected  them,  had  even  love  for  many  of  them,  bore, 
always  cheerfully,  testimony  to  the  talents  of  them  all,  and 
considered  them  honest  but  incapable  men  in  practical 
affairs.  We  have  seen  him  taking  his  seat  in  that  part  of 
the  Convention  called  the  Plain,  the  Centre,  and  as  its  chief 
try  to  unite  the  two  wings,  Girondins  and  Mountain,  lie 
never  tired,  from  first  to  last,  of  preaching  concord  to  them, 
of  imploring  them  to  stop  their  quarrels.  He  afterwards  said 
to  Garat,  made  minister  of  justice  by  the  Girondins, 
"Twenty  times  I  have  offered  them  peace.  Tliey  have 
refused  to  have  faith  in.  me,  in  order  that  they  might  crush 
me." 


1793-]  ^^AV   THIRTY-FIRST.  WJ 

Now,  why  should  they  want  to  crush  him?  They  pre- 
tended it  was  because  he  was  the  guilty  instigator  of  the 
September  massacres,  a  charge  whicli  has  been  proven  a 
falsehood.  This  pretence,  indeed,  was  nothing  less  than 
impudent,  since  they  were  decidedly  more  responsible  for 
not  stopping  these  massacres  than  he  was.  No,  the  true 
reason  was  envy.  He  stood  head  and  shoulders  above  them 
all  in  ability,  and  that  they  could  not  bear.  If  they  had 
allied  themselves  with  him,  they  knew,  from  the  experience 
they  had  had  during  the  invasion,  that  he  would  be  their 
master  and  director,  and  that  they  could  still  less  bear ;  and 
least  of  them  all  could  that  vainest  and  most  ambitious  of 
women,  Madame  Roland,  their  priestess,  —  yes,  their  "  god- 
dess of  liberty,"  —  bear  it. 

Many  a  sitting  was  spent  with  their  recriminations  ;  but 
hitherto  the  most  exciting  of  them  all  had  been  that  of  April 
I,  when  Lasource,  one  of  their  number,  in  a  most  shameful 
fashion,  and  without  a  particle  of  proof,  attacked  Danton's 
honor  and  probity  in  regard  to  funds  expended  in  Belgium, 
and  when  the  former  went  to  the  ridiculous  extent  of  accus- 
ing him  of  having  conspired  with  Dumouriez  to  deliver 
France  to  her  enemies,  and  re-establish  royalty.  Then  Dan- 
ton  at  length  took  up  the  glove  of  battle  thrown  at  him,  left 
his  seat  as  chief  of  the  Centre,  and  joined  the  Mountain  for 
good,  to  the  latter's  immense  joy. 

Several  times  thereafter  he,  nevertheless,  offered  them 
truce,  but  they  would  not  have  it.  No,  they  went  yet  much 
farther.  They  committed  the  unpardonable  blunder  of 
first  attacking  the  safety  of  members  of  the  Convention,  —  a 
fact  that  should  always  be  borne  in  mind  when  the  "  Terror" 
is  spoken  of.  They  first  of  all  insisted  on  formally  accusing 
one  of  their  number,  and  dragging  him  before  the  Revo- 
lutionary Tribunal ;  that  member  was  Marat. 

^'^  Do  not  miitihite  the   Convention  .'"    Danton   then   im- 


Il8  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR   OXE.         [Junes, 

jjlored  of  them  ;  and  lie  certainly  did  not  love  Marat.  But 
their  hatred  rose  superior  to  every  other  consideration. 
Marat  was  taken  before  the  Tribunal,  triumphantly  acquitted, 
and  carried  back  on  people's  shoulders  to  his  seat. 

Bear  in  mind,  that  these  miserable  personal  attacks  went 
on  from  day  to  day  in  the  most  critical  time  of  the  history 
of  France,  and  blocked  all  business.  It  certainly  was  time 
that  energetic  patriots  resolved  to  put  an  end  to  it ;  and 
Uanton,  with  his  usual  energy,  led  in  the  matter. 

He  drafted  a  petition,  which  the  Commune  presented  to 
the  Convention  on  May  31,  praying  for  the  exclusion  of 
thirty-two  members,  naming  them.  He  had  his  friend 
Herault  de  S<^chelles  occupy  the  chair  on  the  decisive 
day,  the  2d  of  June.  On  that  day  a  hundred  thousand 
Parisians,  "in  insurrection,"  and  thoroughly  armed,  sur- 
rounded the  Convention,  and  refused  to  allow  a  single  mem- 
ber to  leave,  or  themselves  to  budge  an  inch,  before  the 
thirty-two  Girondins  had  been  ejected. 

Then  an  unexpected  scene  was  enacted,  that  again  shows 
Danton's  generosity  and  unselfishness.  Carat  rose,  and 
proposed  to  imitate  the  example  of  Aristides,  who  ostracized 
himself  for  his  country's  good ;  that  is  to  say,  that  an 
equal  number  of  Jacobins  and  Girondins  should  voluntarily 
renounce  their  membership.  "  There  yet  will  remain 
talent  enough  in  the  Convention  to  save  the  republic,"  he 
l)leaded. 

Danton  immediately  accepted.  "  I  offer  myself,"  he  said 
with  tears  in  his  eyes,  "  as  the  first,  and  am  willing  to  go  It) 
liordcaux  to  stay  as  a  hostage ;  "  but  Robespierre  objectetl, 
and  so  nothing  came  of  the  generous  idea. 

Then  the  thirty-two  Girondins  were  removed.  They, 
however,  were  not  arrested,  but  for  a  long  time  moved  about 
freely  in  Paris.  It  was  only  after  a  numl)er  of  them  had 
raised  rebellion   in   many  of  the   dej)artments    against  the 


I793-]  DAxXTOX  AS  STATESMAN.  119 

Convention,  that  they,  and  sixty-three  sympathizers  who 
had  signed  a  protest  against  their  exclusion,  were  ordered 
to  be  arrested,  and  finally,  as  many  as  could  be  got  hold 
of,  executed.  But  no  one  tried  so  hard  to  save  them  from 
that  fate  as  Danton. 

By  that  "  revolution  "  the  rule  of  the  plutocrats  is  sus- 
pended for  fourteen  months,  and  the  Mountain,  the  Jacobin 
party,  is  in  unlimited  power  during  that  period ;  that  is  to 
say,  from  June  2,  1793,  to  July  28,  1794. 
*         *         * 

Since  Danton  during  these  summer  months  is  the  virtual 
ruler  and  guardian  of  France,  this  is  a  good  time  to  con- 
sider his  title  to  statesmanship.  Already,  while  he  was 
merely  an  agitator,  we  have  found  him  to  be  very  much 
wiser  than  any  other  public  man,  even  than  Mirabeau,  as  to 
the  form  of  government  suitable  to  France  under  the  changed 
circumstances.  His  experience  in  Belgium,  and  the  respon- 
sibilities thrown  upon  him,  undoubtedly  mature  him  very 
much.  I  think  it  can  be  claimed  for  him  that  he  is  not 
only  the  only  statesman  of  the  First  French  Republic,  but 
that  he  is  the  greatest  statesman  of  the  Revolution  ;  that  lie 
had  not  only  a  deep  insight  into  human  nature,  but  that 
especially  he  had  a  clear  view  of  the  terribly  complex  situa- 
tion of  France,  and  the  fundamental  necessities  consequent 
thereon.  That  he  was  a  statesman  of  first  rank  is  evident 
from  the  truly  tremendous  feat  he  performed  of  stenuning 
and  finally  reversing  tlie  foreign  policy  of  the  Convention 
hitherto  prevailing. 

We  have  seen  what  that  policy  was,  —  the  war  for  propa- 
ganda, —  and  how  enthusiastically  it  was  pursued  both  by  the 
Girondin  majority  and  by  nearly  all  of  the  Jacobin  party. 
To  have  such  a  policy  reversed  was  certainly  an  herculean 
task.  Moreover,  that  policy  was  afterwards  taken  \\\)  by  the 
party  of  Hubert,  who  for  some  months  during  the  autumn 


I20  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.         ISpring, 

became  the  most  influential  person,  and  :itienuously  pressed  ; 
but  Danton  remained  the  victor. 

That  he  never  approved  of  tlic  war  for  propaganda,  thougli 
he  did  not  denounce  it  while  excitement  ran  high,  and 
though  he  as  Representative  on  Mission  executed  the  de- 
crees of  the  19th  of  November  and  15  th  of  December,  as 
was  his  duty,  is  evident  from  the  simple  fact  that  he  never 
ceased  diplomatic  negotiations. 

For  more  than  a  year,  from  Aug.  10,  1792,  to,  say,  Sept. 
15,  1793,  he  directed  the  foreign  relations  of  France,  and 
during  that  time  he  never  for  a  moment  ceased  to  negotiate, 
though  he  did  not  speak  of  it  publicly  —  to  have  told,  from 
the  Tribune  of  the  Convention  or  the  Jacobins,  that  he 
negotiated  with  kings,  "  those  monsters,"  would  have  been 
folly ;  yet  to  maintain  diplomatic  relations  was  to  ignore  the 
idea  of  war  for  propaganda.  He  all  the  time  had  diplomatic 
agents  everywhere,  even,  as  we  saw,  with  the  invading  armies. 
Having  a  clear  view  of  the  situation,  he  feared  that  France 
alone  could  not  cope  with  the  coalition,  and  so  he  tried  to 
create  a  diversion  behind  Prussia  and  Austria  by  using  Turkey, 
the  Polish  patriots,  and  Sweden  ;  though  he  actually  did 
effect  a  treaty  of  alliance  with  the  latter  country,  these 
attempts  did  not  amount  to  much.  Much  more  suc- 

cessful were  his  efforts  to  sow  discord  between  the  States  in 
war  with  France.  At  Vienna  and  at  Berlin  he  was  in  con- 
stant connection  with  the  adversaries  of  the  Austro-Prussian 
alliance,  and  it  is  to  this  very  success  that  was  due  the 
breathing-spell  France  had  after  the  desertion  of  Dumouriez. 

]>ut  most  important  of  all  were  his  relations  with  the 
opposition  in  the  British  Parliament ;  that  is  to  say,  with 
Fox  and  the  ^Vhigs,  with  whom  he  was  in  constant  and  inti- 
mate relations.  By  their  help  he  tried  first  all  he  could  to 
prevent  Great  Britain  from  joining  the  coalition,  and  after- 
wards to  detach  her  from  it.     That  was  why  the  defection 


1793-1  DANTON  AS  STATESMAN.  131 

of  Dumouricz  was  such  a  blow,  in  particular  to  him,  for  this 
general  had  been  used  to  go  between  him  and  the  com- 
mander of  the  British  army,  as  well  as  the  British  ambassador 
at  The  Hague.  Indeed,  the  fortune  of  Danton  very  much 
depended  upon  the  success  or  failure  of  Fox  ;  if  Pitt  were 
overthrown,  and  Fox  rose  to  power,  England,  it  was  under- 
stood, would  retire  from  the  coalition,  and  acknowledge  the 
French  Republic,  which  in  turn  would  evacuate  -Belgium  and 
Savoy.  Fox  tried  very  hard  to  accomplish  this  ;  Lord  Bel- 
ford  came  incognito  to  Paris,  in  these  spring  months  of  '93, 
to  confer  with  Danton.  Motion  after  motion  was  made  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  but  none  of  them  would  succeed. 
Danton  personally  did  not  reap  the  fruit  of  all  these  labors, 
but  France  did  ;  for  it  w^as  this  policy  of  Danton  which  the 
Committee  de  Sahtt  Public  finally  adopted,  and  which  ended 
in  the  peace  concluded  in  1795. 

Danton  was  then  certainly  all  the  time  an  antagonist  of  the 
idea  of  war  for  propaganda;  but  it  was  not  till  March,  '93, 
that  he  found  it  judicious  to  be  it  openly  and  fearlessly,  and 
his  success  was  immediate  and  decisive.  The  Girondins 
were  dumfounded  by  his  boldness.  Brissot,  one  of  the 
most  prominent  among  them,  says,  in  his  last  letter  to  his 
constituents,  "  You  may  form  an  idea  of  the  liberty  of 
opinion,  enjoyed  in  the  Convention,  from  the  fact  that 
Danton  alone,  or  only  supported  by  two  or  three  of  his 
party,  could  make,  without  being  howled  down,  a  motion  for 
repealing  the  decree  of  the  igth  of  November.  We  must  do 
him  the  justice  to  admit  that  he  did  it  cleverly." 

On  the  13th  of  April  Robespierre  had  made  some  motion 
or  other,  when  Danton  rose  and  spoke  :  — 

"  It  is  time,  citizens,  that  the  National  Convention  should 
teach  Europe  that  France  knows  how  to  infuse  prudence  in 
its  politics. 

"  You  have  in  a  moment  of  enthusiasm,  certainly  letl  by 


122  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.       [April  z6, 

noble  motives,  decreed  that  you  were  ready  to  liel])  all  na- 
tions who  would  oppose  resistance  to  oppressive  tyrants. 
By  virtue  of  that  decree  you  might  he  called  upon  to  assist 
patriots  who  would  rebel  in  China. 

^^  But  surely  above  all  it  becomes  us  to  take  care  of  our- 
selves, and  do  our  best  to  make  France  great.  Make  the 
republic  strong,  and  France  will  influence  other  nations  by 
her  example  and  attainments. 

"Let  us  therefore  now  decree  that  we  do  not  want  to  mix 
ourselves  into  the  affairs  of  our  neighbors.''^ 

Immediately  the  Convention  resolves, — 

"The  National  Convention  declares,  in  the  name  of  the 
French  people,  that  it  will  in  no  manner  intermeddle  with 
the  government  of  other  nations  ;  but  it  at  the  same  time  de- 
clares that  it  will  sooner  bury  itself  under  its  own  ruins  than 
suffer  another  power  to  intermeddle  with  the  internal  affairs 
of  the  republic." 

This  is  the  first  but  decisive  blow  to  the  idea  of  the  war 
for  propaganda.     But  Danton  and  his  friends  follow  it  vip. 

When,  on  the  26th  of  April,  Robespierre  went  back  to 
the  ideas  of  the  decree  of  Nov.  19,  and  proposed  to  insert 
in  the  preamble  to  the  new  constitution  such  phrases  as 
these,  "  He  who  oppresses  one  nation,  thereby  declares 
himself  the  enemy  of  all ;  "  "  Kings  and  aristocrats  are  rebels 
against  the  sovereign  of  the  earth.  Humanity,  and  against 
the  legislator  of  the  universe.  Nature,"  Robert,  the  Parisian 
delegate  and  Dantonist,  objects  :  — 

"  Let  us  leave  to  philosophers  to  analyze  humanity  in  all 
its  relations  ;  7ve  are  not  the  representatives  of  humanity. 
I  want  that  French  legislators  should  forget  the  universe  for 
the  present,  and  occupy  themselves  with  the  affairs  of  their 
country.  ...  I  do  not  care  to  examine  what  is  the  nature 
of  man  in  general,  but  what  is  the  character  of  the  l^'rench 
people." 


1793-1  DANTON  AS  STATESMAN.  123 

Finally  the  Jacobin  Constitution,  i)romulgated  Aug.  10, 
1793,  solemnly  affirmed,  in  its  119th  article,  — 

"  The  French  people  will  never  interfere  with  the  govern- 
ment of  other  nations,  nor  suffer  other  nations  to  interfere 
with  its  own  government." 

The  second  mischievous  policy  which  Danton  had  to 
combat,  and  which  he  with  equal  success  overcame,  in 
this  case  supported  by  the  greater  part  of  the  Mountain, 
was  the  Federalism  of  the  Girondins,  and  after  their  fall, 
like  the  previous  one,  adopted  by  the  H^bertists.  That 
word  meant  in  France  the  very  reverse  of  what  it  designated 
in  the  United  States  at  the  same  period  ;  to  wit,  autonomy 
of  the  departments  and  communes,  a  loosening  of  the  bond 
of  political  unity  which  was  one  of  the  three  grand  objects 
that  the  Revolution  of  '89  had  accomplished. 

That  the  Girondists  favored  that  policy  was  a  natural 
result  from  the  liberty  which  they  meant  and  worshipped,  — 
middle-class  liberty  ;  this  :  not  to  be  restrained  at  all.  From 
demanding  such  liberty  for  their  persons  and  their  class,  it 
was  only  a  step  to  demanding  liberty  for  their  localities, 
where  they,  of  course,  could  rule  by  virtue  of  the  influence 
they  possessed  through  their  wealth.  Another  motive  was 
the  hatred  they  felt  for  the  population  of  Paris,  that  had  a 
most  wholesome  contempt  for  their  imbecility.  Paris  has, 
all  through  French  history,  exercised  a  predominant  influ- 
ence, and  justly  so.  The  spirit  that  animated  Paris  has 
never  been  a  local  one  at  all,  but  national,  and  that  because 
she  is  a  truly  representative  city,  one  which  the  strongest 
minds  from  every  nook  and  corner  of  France  make  their 
home,  at  least  for  a  period.  London  is  just  that  kind  of  a 
city  for  England,  though  not  in  the  same  degree,  while 
America  does  not  possess  that  kind  of  a  city  at  all. 

It  was  a  great  merit  in  Danton  that  he  oi)posed  that 
policy,  and  maintained  the  unity  of  France  with  all  the  force 


124  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR   ONE.         [Spring, 

of  his  character ;  for  at  an  earlier  period,  as  agitator,  he 
liad  prated  more  about  "  Hberty  "  than  any  one.  ]]ut  as 
he  matured,  as  responsibility  fell  on  him,  "  la  patric,'''  the 
fotherland,  France,  secured  a  higher  claim  on  his  allegiance  ; 
and  for  France,  at  that  moment  especially,  when  she  was 
in  a  death-struggle,  to  have  relaxed  her  unity,  would  have 
been  madness.  These  were  his  memorable  words :  "  As 
for  me,  I  am  not  a  child  of  Paris.  I  was  born  in  a  depart- 
ment toward  which  I  always  turn  an  affectionate  and 
longing  eye.  But  no  one  of  us  belongs  to  this  or  that 
department :  we  all  belong  to  the  whole  of  France.  Stop, 
then,  these  di^^cussions,  and  let  us  devote  ourselves  to  the 
public  welfare,  ...  It  is  said  that  there  are  among  us  men 
who  wish  to  cut  France  into  pieces.  Let  us  destroy  these 
absurd  ideas  by  decreeing  the  punishment  of  death  against 
their  authors.  France  must  remain  an  undivided  whole 
with  an  undivided  representation.  The  citizens  of  Mar- 
seilles want  to  clasp  the  hands  of  their  fellow-citizens  of 
Dunkirk." 

And  he  was  right.  If  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is  at  all 
correct,  nothing  is  surer  than  that  progress  lies  in  the 
development  of  larger  and  larger  unities ;  and  if  the  senti- 
ment that  moved  so  many  among  us  to  lay  down  their  lives 
for  the  union  of  the  States  were  not  mere  froth,  then  //  is 
through  the  nation,  our  country,  that  toe  enter  into  relation 
with  humanity.  Between  the  three  terms,  family,  country, 
humanity,  there  is  a  close  and  intimate  relationshi|X  The 
family  is  the  germ  of  the  nation,  as  the  nation  is  the  germ 
of  humanity.  They  are  three  successive  manifestations  of 
human  nature,  three  stages  of  the  same  idea ;  a  realization, 
more  and  more  complete,  of  the  law  of  our  being,  of  the 
jjlan  that  is  to  be  worked  out  through  us.  lather  these 
three  ideas  are  all  sacred,  or  not  one  is  so. 

Danton  was  just  a  statesman  because  he  was  a  disciple 


I793-]  ABSOLUTE  GOVERNMENT.  1 25 

of  Diderot.  As  such  he  had  a  profound  contempt  for  meta- 
physical (h-eams,  and  had  a  clear  perception  of  what  was 
possible.  It  is  therefore  a  most  egregious  mistake  to  think 
that  Dantoii  was  only  a  destroyer.  He  was  the  tnosl  co::- 
stnictive  viind  of  all  the  public  men  of  the  Revolution,  and 
as  constructive  as  it  was  possible  to  be  at  the  threshold  of 
a  transition  period.  His  programme  was  the  true  pro- 
gramme of  the  Revolution  ;  that  is  to  say,  — 

Substitution  of  popular  sovereignty  for  absolutism  ; 

Maintenance  of  order  sufficient  to  resist  re-action  ; 

Facilities  for  the  greatest  development  of  industry ; 

Free  development  of  science  and  philosophy ;  and  hence  : 

Separation  of  Church  and  State. 

He  was  certainly,  from  the  crown  of  his  head  to  the  sole 
of  his  foot,  a  middle-class  man,  but  it  was  precisely  a  merit 
in  a  leader  of  France  at  that  time  to  be  that  thoroughly  ; 
but  he  was  more  than  that,  he  was  a  middle-class  man  with 
a  heart  for  the  masses. 

In  a  few  words,  he  wanted  such  a  republic  as  that  which 
recently  had  been  established  in  the  United  States  of 
America,  but  with  unity. 

*         *         * 

So  from  the  2d  of  July  the  Jacobins  were  masters  of 
France.  That  they  did  not  lose  a  moment  in  carrying  out 
their  social  ideas,  we  shall  see  in  the  next  chapter.  Here  will 
be  shown,  how  they  solved  the  problem  of  the  salvation  of,  and 
security  for,  France  ;  for  the  breathing-spell  she  had  enjoyed 
was  now  at  an  end,  and  new,  terrible  dangers  threatened. 

Four  short  days  after  the  revolution  of  the  2d  of  June, 
it  was  learned  that  more  than  sixty  out  of  the  eighty-three 
departments  had  risen  against  their  authority,  and  threat- 
ened to  overj)ower  Paris,  the  Convention,  and  the  wliole 
one  and  indivisible  republic.  Ni  the  word  of  the  ejected 
Girondins  Marseilles  revolts  ;   Lyons  smds  Clialier,  ils  Jaco- 


126  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.  [June  6, 

bin  leader,  to  the  scaffokl ;  Toulon  imprisons  patriots,  and 
l)arlcys  witli  the  English  ;  MontpclHcr,  lionleaux,  and  Nantes 
proclaim  loudly  that  they  are  ready  to  take  up  arms  ;  Caen, 
in  the  north-west,  which  a  month  hence  will  send  forth  tlie 
young  Girondin  woman  Charlotte  Corday,  with  her  dagger 
destined  for  Marat's  heart,  is  already  organizing  a  small 
army. 

Then  Danton  once  more  infuses  courage  and  energy  into 
France  by  his  words  —  now  rising  in  the  former  royal  theatre 
of  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries,  into  which  the  Jacobin  Con- 
vention has  just  moved  from  the  riding-school  behind  tlie 
palace  :  — 

"  We  are  in  the  midst  of  storms  ;  the  thunder  rolls.  It  is 
in  the  midst  of  these  clashings  that  the  work  will  be  done 
that  will  immortalize  the  French  nation.  They  claim  that 
it  is  the  insurrection  of  Paris  that  causes  these  movements 
in  the  departments.  I  declare,  in  the  face  of  the  universe, 
tliat  the  events  of  May  31  and  July  2  constitute  the  glory  of 
this  superb  city.  I  proclaim,  in  the  face  of  France,  that 
without  the  cannon  and  the  insurrection  the  conspirators 
would  have  triumphed.  We  are  willing,  then,  to  face  the 
whole  responsibility  resulting  therefrom.  I  myself  incited 
to  tlie  rising  of  the  people  by  saying,  that,  if  there  were  in 
the  Convention  a  hundred  men  like  me,  we  should  overcome 
the  conspiracy,  and  found  liberty  on  immovable  foundations. 
Do  not  mind  the  addresses,  full  of  calumnies,  against  Paris, 
which  the  conspirators  have  sent  to  the  departments-;  they 
are  no  new  tiling.  Paris  remains  the  centre,  where  every 
thing  must  concentrate.  Paris  is  the  focus  that  will  gather 
all  rays  of  French  patriotism,  which  will  consume  our  ene- 
mies." 

And  action  followed.  The  committees  of  the  Convention 
went  to  work.  Special  commissioners,  with  ]K'ace  or  war  in 
the  folds  of  their  mantles,  ovi-rran   the  (hp:iiliiiriits.     'Hiey 


I793-]  ABSOLUTE  COVERXMEXT.  127 

appeared  in  the  midst  of  their  rebellious  countrymen  in  the 
prescribed  costume  of  a  Representative  on  Mission  :  a  round 
hat  with  three  feathers  of  the  national  colors,  a  scarf,  and 
in  a  black-leather  belt  a  naked  sword,  —  the  avenging  sword 
of  the  republic.  They  talked  a  few  stern  words,  and  they 
conciuered.  In  three  days  they  pacified  France.  Says  one 
of  the  rebels,  ''The  seventy-two  departments  which  had 
declared  themselves  for  us  turned  round,  and  al)andoned  us 
in  the  course  of  twenty-four  hours."  The  Girondins  were 
everywhere  fleeing. 

Then  came,  a  month  after,  the  murder  of  Marat,  which 
sent  a  thrill  of  horror  through  Paris.  It  was  really  a  mis- 
fortune, for  it  roused  all  the  very  worst  passions,  and  brought 
to  the  front  Hebert,  a  worse  man  than  Marat.  The  latter 
died  with  twenty-one  cents  in  his  possession,  his  whole 
wealth  ;  and  it  was  this  unselfishness  that  made  sincere  tears 
flow  down  the  cheeks  of  most  patriots  while  his  body  was 
being  taken,  a  couple  of  days  after,  to  the  Pantheon,  from 
which  the  bones  of  Mirabeau  had  previously  been  igno- 
miniously  ejected.  David  made  a  splendid  bust  of  Marat, 
a  copy  of  which  was  i:)laced  in  the  hall  of  every  primary 
assembly  of  France.  One  can  be  seen  to-day  in  a  museum 
in  Paris,  of  which  the  eyes  seem  to  flash  fire. 

The  black  clouds  thickened  over  France,  till  the  greatest 
intensity  was  reached  July  25,  on  which  day  Danton  was 
appointed  president  of  the  Convention,  an  office  filled  by 
rotation.  At  that  moment  the  northern  frontier  was  overrun 
by  the  united  British  and  Austrians,  who  bombarded  Valen- 
ciennes ;  the  Prussians  entered  the  heart  of  Alsace ;  tlie 
British  flag  floated  over  Toulon  ;  Conde  had  just  surren- 
dered ;  Mayence  capitulated,  but  the  garrison  departed 
with  all  the  honors  of  war  (on  condition  of  not  serving 
against  the  enemy  for  a  year),  headed  by  Merlin  of  Thion- 
ville.  Representative  on  Mission,  who,  when  st)me  one  among 


128  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.         [Aug.  2. 

the  spectators  uttered  an  insulting  word,  imperiously  cried 
out,  "  Have  a  care  !  we  arc  coming  back."  Lastly,  the 
rebellious  Vendeans  had  just  at  the  same  time  dispersed 
the  republican  army,  comman<led  by  Rossignol. 

All  these  disasters  became  known  in  Paris,  one  after 
another,  at  the  end  of  the  month  of  July.  The  situation 
was  terrible.  Labor  was  paralyzed,  commerce  dead ;  in 
Paris  itself  was  famine.  The  assig?iafs  were  falling  in  value, 
and  the  Convention  in  a  death-struggle  with  counterfeiters, 
the  last  miserable  guise  of  the  counter-revolutionists.  The 
soldiers  were  without  bread  and  shoes ;  of  powder  there 
was  none.  Some  heroic  remedies  were  imperatively  needed. 
On  the  2d  of  August  Danton  ascended  the  Tribune  and  pro- 
vided one,  and  a  few  days  after  another,  and  thereby,  for  the 
third  time  and  finally,  saved  France  and  the  Revolution. 

"The  peril  is  imminent,"  he  said,  "  but  our  people  are 
determined.  Since  it  is  to  be  war,  let  us  be  terrible  ;  let  us 
make  war  like  lions  !  Let  us  boldly  esfahlisii  a  '■Revolution- 
ary Goverjiment '  that  can  utilize  the  whole  national  energy 
for  gigantic  measures.  /  declare  it  as  ;;/)■  firm  intention 
not  to  be  a  member  of  such  a  government.  I  want  to  be 
always  free  to  spur  on  those  who  carry  on  the  government ; 
in  other  words,  what  I  demand  to-day  is,  that  ministers  shall 
from  this  moment  be  simply  the  chief  clerks  of  this  Re7'olution- 
ary  Government.  I  add  this  other  demantl :  that  fifty  million 
francs  be  placed  at  its  disposal,  for  which  funds  it  sliall  render 
account  when  its  mission  is  at  an  end,  l)ut  witli  ])o\ver  of 
spending  the  sum  in  one  single  day,  if  thought  expedient. 
Let  us  be  extravagantly  prodigal  for  the  cause  of  libert)-,  and 
it  will  be  returned  to  us  a  hundred-fold.  It  would  be  shame- 
ful for  us  if  the  haughty  minister'  of  a  despot  should  have 
superior  resources  and  a  larger  purse  than  those  charged  with 
the  regeneration  of  the  worUl." 

'  \Villi.-ini  Pitt. 


1793-]  ABSOLUTE  GOVERNMENT.  1 29 

Then  and  there  that  "  RevoUitionary  (k)vcrnment,"  —  an 
absolute  government,  —  the  new  Committee  dc  Saliit  Piihlic 
was  created,  that  became  the  terror  of  F^urope.  When  he 
had  proposed  the  first  committee,  the  proposition  had  been 
listened  to  in  alarm,  it  had  been  delayed  and  discussed  ;  now, 
when  a  far  more  centralized  power — a  dictatorship,  in  fact  — 
was  proposed,  a  step,  be  it  known,  that  involved  the  suspen- 
sion of  the  new  constitution  (of  which  more  in  the  following 
chapter),  that  had  just  been  voted  by  the  Convention,  and 
which  the  people  were  even  then  making  preparations  for 
sanctioning  enthusiastically  and  with  festivities,  it  was  adopted 
on  his  mere  proposal.  But  then,  he  had  himself  worked 
the  first  committee  ;  his  spirit  was  to  be  absent  from  tlie 
second. 

This  "Revolutionary  Government"  disposed  of  all  the 
national  forces ;  it  appointed  and  dismissed  the  ministers, 
generals,  Representatives  on  Mission,  the  judges  and  juries 
of  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal.  The  latter  instrument  became 
its  strong  arm ;  it  was,  in  fact,  a  court  martial  worked  by 
civil  magistrates.  By  its  agents  it  directed  the  departments 
and  armies,  the  political  situation  without  and  within,  strik- 
ing down  at  the  same  time  the  rebels  within  and  the  enemies 
without :  for,  together  with  the  constitution,  were,  of  course, 
suspended  the  municipal  laws  and  the  political  machinery 
of  the  communes ;  and  thus  cities  and  villages  hitherto 
indifferent  or  opposed  to  the  Revolution  were  republicanized. 
By  the  Tribunal  it  disposed  of  the  persons  of  individuals  ;  1)y 
requisition  and  the  law  of  inaxiniitin  (with  wliich  we  are 
going  to  be  better  ac([uainted)  it  disposed  of  their  fortunes. 
It  can,  indeed,  be  said  that  the  whole  of  France  was  placed 
in  a  state  of  siege  ;  but  that  was  the  price  of  its  salvation, 
as  in  some  countries  it  may  be  the  indispensable  price  of 
salvation  of  society  when  the  Coming  Revolution,  the  last 
revolution,  occurs. 


130  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.        [Aug.  lo, 

There  can  be  no  doubt  now  that  it  was  the  intention  of 
the  coalition,  in  i  793,  to  dismember  France.  Not  one  of  the 
States  that  composed  it  seriously  proposed,  as  the  exclusi\e 
aim  of  the  war,  to  save  or  revenge  Louis  XVI.  Every  one 
of  them  expected  a  piece  of  the  country.  Austria  wanted 
Flanders,  Lorraine,  and  Alsace  ;  Prussia  wanted  some  con- 
tiguous strips  ;  England,  DunT^irk;  Sardinia,  Provence;  and 
Spain,  Roussillon.  Even  royalist  writers  have  been  honest 
and  patriotic  enough  to  admit  that.  Thus  a  modern  diplo- 
mat, M.  de  Bourgoing,  writes,  — 

"  If  the  Jacobins  had  been  conquered,  France  would  have 
fallen  with  them  ;  and  the  miserable  fate  of  Poland  teaches 
us  but  too  plainly  what  would  have  been  in  reserve  for  us. 
Foreign  nations  would  have  trampled  us  pitilessly  under  foot, 
and,  to  save  themselves  remorse,  would  have  reproached  us, 
as  they  did  the  Poles,  with  our  internal  divisions ;  one  jiart 
of  us  with  their  crimes,  the  other  part  with  their  appeals  to 
foreigners.  Those  who  always  glorify  success  would  have 
loudly  proclaimed  that  we  deserved  our  fate." 

And  that  still  more  renowned  Catholic  writer,  De  Maistre, 
frankly  admits,  "  Once  the  Revolution  given,  France  could 
7wt possibly  have  been  saved  except  by  Jacobinism.^^ 
*         *         * 

And  now  Danton  created  the  second  heroic  means  of  sal- 
vation.    It  was  the  levy  en  masse. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  people  prepared  themselves  to 
celebrate  by  festivities  the  completion  and  adoption  of  that 
constitution  which  had  been  suspended  before  the  people 
had  even  sanctioned  it.  But,  nevertheless,  they  met  in 
their  eight  thousand  primary  assemblies,  and  adopted  it  with 
remarkable  imanimity.  Each  primary  assembly  further  ap- 
pointed a  delegate  ;  and  these  eight  thousand  delegates  went 
tf)  Paris,  and  on  the  lOth  of  August,  tliat  now  had  become 
the  great  national  holiday,  on  tlie  first  anniversary  of  the 


1793.]  LEVY  EN  MASSE.  I3T 

fall  of  the  monarchy,  celebrated  a  new  "  Feast  of  Federa- 
tion," much  more  remarkable  than  its  prototyi)e  of  July  14, 
1790. 

A  wonderful  people  !  to  witness  theatrical  displays,  and 
give  themselves  over  to  festivities,  in  the  darkest  hour  of 
their  history,  with  their  fate  as  a  nation  trembling  in  the 
balance ;  in  a  situation  for  which  Anglo-Saxons  would  have 
fortified  themselves  with  fasting  and  prayer  ! 

The  whole  population  of  Paris,  the  eight  thousand  dele- 
gates, and  the  Convention  in  a  body,  that  had  chosen  for 
president  of  the  occasion  H^rault  de  Sechelles,  took  part  in 
the  "  feast."  It  commenced  at  sunrise  at  the  Place  de  Bas- 
tille, and  ended  at  sunset  round  the  altar  of  the  country  on 
the  Champ  de  Mars,  by  swearing  the  oath  of  fidelity.  The 
next  day  the  Convention  held  a  sitting,  when  the  eight 
thousand  delegates  (or  as  many,  I  suppose,  as  could  find 
room)  were  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  Convention  ;  and  it 
was  then  that  Danton  made  his  other  supreme  effort. 

"You,  the  envoys  of  the  primary  assemblies  of  France," 
he  said,  "  should  be  empowered,  by  the  Convention  that 
grasps  the  thunderbolt  of  the  nation,  to  draft  those  citizens 
whose  enthusiasm  is  lagging  behind  into  the  service  of  the 
country.  By  joining  the  aposdeship  of  liberty  to  the  rigor 
of  the  law  we  shall  create  an  immense  force.  I  hereby  ask 
the  Convention  to  give  these  delegates  most  direct  and 
extensive  powers  to  levy  recruits.  If  each  of  these  eight 
thousand  men  sends  to  the  front  twenty  men,  the  fatherland 
is  saved.  I  demand,  further,  that  besides  being  invested 
with  ample  powers  of  lev^ying  men,  in  concert  with  the  con- 
stituted authorities  and  with  all  good  citizens,  they  be  also 
authorized  to  take  an  inventory  of  corn,  and  that  the  Com- 
mittee de  Salut  Public  shall  direct  this  sublime  movement. 
I  have  noted  the  energy  of  these  men  whom  the  primary 
assemblies  have  sent  here,  and   I  am  convinced  lliat  they 


132  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  OXE.        [Aug.  23. 

are  ready  to  swear  that  tliey  will,  on  returning  to  their 
homes,  give  an  impulse  to  their  fellow-citizens  in  this  direc- 
tion. [All  delegates  present  rise  and  swear,  '  Indeed,  we 
are  ! ']  This  is  the  moment  to  take  for  the  last  time  the 
oath,  to  devote  ourselves  to  death,  or  to  destroy  our  enemies. 
[All  in  the  hall  and  galleries  rise,  wave  their  hats,  and  cry, 
'  Yes,  we  swear  ! '] 

"  I  also  demand  that  all  truly  suspected  persons  be 
arrested,  but  add  that  this  vicasiire  be  executed  7a»th  )nore 
care  than  hitherto,  for,  instead  of  seizing  the  great  scoundrels 
and  conspirators,  many  humble,  innocent  persons  have  been 
made  to  suffer.  Let,  then,  the  Convention,  recently  invested 
with  new  dignity  from  the  unanimous  approval  just  bestowed 
upon  it  by  the  people,  empower  the  delegates  of  the  pri- 
mary assemblies  to  make  requisitions  of  arms,  provisions, 
and  ammunition,  and  to  levy  four  hundred  thousand  men  to 
be  sent  immediately  to  the  front." 

This  motion  is  adopted  immediately.  As  a  supjilement, 
the  Convention  on  the  23d  of  August  issued  the  following 
sufificiently  high-sounding  decree  :  — 

"  From  this  time,  and  till  the  enemy  is  beaten,  all  French 
men   are    declared   liable    to    military   service,   and    to    be 
drafted  at  any  time. 

"  Let  our  young  men  go  to  battle  ;  our  married  men  forge 
arms  and  transport  subsistence  ;  their  wives  make  tents  and 
clothes,  or  serve  in  the  hospitals  ;  their  children  make  old 
linen  into  lint ;  and  our  old  men  be  taken  to  the  public 
places,  there  to  encourage  our  soldiers,  and  j^reach  to  them 
hatred  of  kings  and  the  unity  of  the  republic. 

"This  levy  shall  be  a  universal  one.  All  unmarried  citi- 
zens and  childless  widowers  between  eighteen  and  twenty- 
five  years  of  age  shall  go  first.  Let  them  repair  to  the  chief 
places  of  their  respective  districts,  and  there  be  exercised  in 
arms  till  they  be  reijuired  to  de])art  for  the  .seat  of  war." 


I793-]  LEW  EN  MASSE.  1 33 

And  behold,  it  was  really  done  ! 

Yes,  by  a  simple  motion  this  wonderful  man  conjured 
out  of  the  ground  fourteen  grand  armies  and  six  hundred 
thousand  soldiers,  —  these  great  republican  armies  which 
filled  the  horizon  of  Europe  for  the  next  twenty-five  years, 
and  with  which,  in  particular,  the  great  republican  Jacobin 
generals  made  the  decisive  wars  of  '93  and  '94  in  the  in- 
terior and  on  the  frontier,  in  the  Vendee  and  on  the  Rhine, 
at  Lyons,  at  Toulon,  in  the  Alps  and  the  Pyrenees.  The 
7-epiihUcan  Jacobin  generals,  mark  !  Not  the  aristocratic 
royalist  ones,  whose  imbecility  was  noted  at  the  commence- 
ment of  this  chapter;  for  it. was  out  of  the  very  men  levied 
by  these  delegates  of  primary  assemblies  that  arose  the 
renowned  chiefs  Jourdan,  Pichegru,  Marceau,  Dugommier, 
Moreau,  Joubert,  Kleber,  and  the  first  among  equals,  Hoche. 
The  minister,  as  we  saw,  had  no  power  of  introducing  vol- 
unteers into  the  corps  of  officers ;  but  the  absolute  Com- 
mittee de  Saint  Public  had,  as  it  had  the  power  of  ordering 
the  minister,  its  "  chief  clerk,"  to  do  it.  It  was  fortunate 
that  it  secured  as  chief  clerk,  titular  minister  of  war,  a  man 
able  to  carry  through  that  most  important  measure,  the 
so-called  amalgamation  of  regulars  and  volunteers,  and  that 
man  was  Col.  Bouchotte. 

The  very  saddest  thing  in  the  world  it  is  to  see  a  man  who 
has  rendered  either  humanity  or  his  country  splendid  ser- 
vices, not  alone  unappreciated  by  posterity,  but  depreciated 
and  contemned.  Ungratefulness  is  about  the  blackest  vice 
posterity  can  be  guilty  of;  and  perhaps  no  man  concerned 
with  the  French  Revolution,  next  after  Danton,  has  been 
wronged  so  much  as  Bouchotte.  He  has  been  styled  a 
follower  of  Hebert  and  an  imbecile.  All  credit  for  the 
splendid  success  of  the  armies  has  been  given  to  Carnot, 
the  eminent  member  of  the  Committee  de  Saliit  Public,  and 
not  a  particle,  of  course,  is  given  to  Bouchotte.     Now,  it  i'* 


134  ENERGY  OF  THE    YEAR  ONE.  [Aug.. 

true  that  Carnot  is  entitled  to  great  credit :  he  was  the 
organizer  of  their  victories,  since  he  it  was  who  formed 
the  plan  of  campaign ;  he  was  the  republican  Von  Moltke. 
True  it  also  is,  that  Bouchotte  was  not  a  genius  :  but  it  is  the 
lieight  of  injustice  not  to  admit  that  the  most  splendid  plans 
would  have  availed  nothing,  if  Bouchotte  had  not  seconded 
Carnot,  and  especially  had  not  organized  those  fourteen 
armies  and  six  hundred  thousand  men  ;  if  he  had  not  for 
many  months  toiled  for  sixteen  hours  a  day  in  amalga mating 
these  volunteers  with  the  regular  army,  and  used  his  excel- 
lent knowledge  of  men  in  appointing  the  right  sort  of  new 
officers  and  generals.  Every  one  of  the  renowned  repub- 
lican generals  owed  their  appointment  to  Bouchotte,  and  it 
is  a  shame  that  honest,  patriotic  toil  shall  not  have  its 
credit,  as  well  as  talent  and  genius. 

But,  above  all,  there  was  a  universal  rising  of  the  whole 
people.  They  showed  an  energy  and  felt  a  conviction  of 
victory,  impossible  to  explain.  They  believed  the  republic 
almighty.  Forges  blazed  everywhere  in  Paris  ;  the  cells  of 
the  convent  of  the  Chartreux  filled  with  workmen,  making 
a  noise  that  might  have  awakened  the  monks,  buried  there  a 
century  ago.  A  thousand  muskets  were  daily  turned  out ; 
seven  hundred  bronze  and  thirty  thousand  iron  cannon  were 
made  in  a  year.  All  metal  was  turned  into  cannon,  muskets, 
and  swords ;  the  ground  all  over,  the  hearthstones,  kitchen 
walls,  were  ransacked  for  saltpetre. 

As  leather  was  lacking,  Bouchotte  wanted  to  induce  the 
soldiers  to  wear  wooden  shoes  occasionally ;  but  how  should 
he  make  them  take  kindly  to  the  suggestion  ?  He  finally 
concluded  to  send  them  the  following  circular,  certainly  the 
most  remarkable  communication  ever  sent  by  a  war  minister 
to  his  soldiers  :  — 

"  Brothers  and  Friends, —  the  Committee  </e  Saint  Piil>lic 
has  ordered  me  to  distribute  to  each  of  )ou  a  pair  of  wooden 


1793.]  LEVY  EX  J/ASSE.  1 35 

shoes,  which  you  are  requested  to  wear  out  of  service.  This 
resohnion  is  a  new  proof  of  the  sohcitude  of  the  comniillcc 
for  the  well-being  of  the  defenders  of  our  country.  Such 
shoes  are  the  healthiest  of  all  during  this  season  :  will  pro- 
tect your  feet  from  dampness  and  cold  when  you  rest,  and 
equally  when  you  march,  for  they  will  enable  you  to  dry  your 
other  shoes  ;  lastly,  they  will  save  the  consumption  of  leather 
shoes,  which  has  become  excessive  from  your  wear  and  tear 
and  the  dishonesty  of  the  contractors,  and  will  thus  leave  us 
time  to  get  a  better  supply  for  the  future. 

"  No  doubt,  brothers  and  friends,  you  will  hasten  to  get  a 
pair  of  these  wooden  shoes,  and  wear  them  whenever  the  ser- 
vice permits  it.  There  will  be  no  deduction  made  for  them, 
except  when  they  should  get  lost  through  your  own  fault. 

"  Your  interest  for  the  finances  of  the  republic,  and  your 
own  interests,  demand  that  you  take 'as  much  care  of  this 
foot-gear  as  of  all  other  things  that  protect  you  from  the 
rigors  of  the  season. 

"  The  fatherland  will  always  look  after  your  wants  with  the 
attention  and  liberality  of  a  tender  mother,  mindful  of  your 
sacrifices  for  her ;  but  you  ought  also,  like  careful  and  eco- 
nomical children,  to  neglect  nothing  that  can  save  her  effort 
and  expenses." 

Would  it  not  be  impossible  to  resist  such  a  fraternal  invi- 
tation? 

But  this  measure  did  not  prove  sufficient ;  and  one  of  the 
Representatives  on  Mission,  therefore,  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility, issued  the  following  proclamation  to  the  citizens  of 
Lyons : — 

"  Whereas  wooden  shoes  suffice  for  those  who  stay  at 
home,  it  is  ordered  that  all  citizens  not  employed  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  armies  deliver  up  their  shoes  within  eight  days  at 
their  respective  town-halls,  when  a  receipt  will  be  given  to 
them." 


136  ENERGY  OE  THE   YEAR  ONE.  [Aug., 

It  was  done.  It  was  imitated,  and  soon  Paris,  Strasbourg, 
Rennes,  and  other  cities  put  their  shoes  at  the  disposition 
of  the  country's  defenders.  What  proof  of  devoted  self- 
denial  ! 

The  consequence  of  this  wonderful  enthusiasm  was,  that 
a  few  months  thereafter  the  soil  of  France  was  cleared  of  all 
her  enemies,  and  Europe  in  its  turn  stood  trembling  at  the 
advance  of  the  republican  armies. 

And  more  wonderful  things  yet  come  to  be  seen  and  Heard. 
Listen  how  that  terrible  Jacobin  Convention  orders  the  gar- 
risons of  the  fortresses  of  the  enemy  to  surrender  within 
forty-eight  hours,  —  and  they  obey  !  For  the  first  time  in  all 
history  the  world  listens  to  decrees  like  these  :  that  at  such 
and  such  a  time  this  town  must  be  taken,  that  battle  must 
be  fought  and  won,  —  and  it  is  being  done  !  That  is  the  sub- 
lime of  it.     If  it  had  not  been  done,  such  decrees  would 

have  been  ridiculous. 

*         *         * 

But  Danton  has  committed  a  great  mistake,  —  one  that  he, 
and  especially  France,  will  come  to  rue.  He  has  declined  to 
become  a  member  of  tiie  Revolutionary  Government,  which  has 
been  established  on  his  motion.  "  It  is  my  firm  resolve  not 
to  be  a  member  of  such  a  government,"  he  had  said.  .In 
other  words,  he  has  declined  re-election  as  a  member  of  the 
Committee  de  Saint  Public,  now  it  has  been  erected  into  a 
dictatorship. 

He  unfortunately  lacked  all  ambition. 

He  hitherto  had  professed  perfect  indifference  to  all 
tlie  false  charges  affecting  his  honor  and  character  which  the 
Girondins  had  brought  against  him.  He  constantly  had  re- 
peated that  his  reputation  was  a  matter  of  no  concern.  "  Let 
my  reputation  be  blasted,  if  but  France  be  saved."  But 
a]:)l)arendy  he  got  tired  of  these  slanders.  This  absolute 
government  will  have  vast  sqms  confided  to  its  discretion, 


1793]  D ANTON'S  RESIGNATION.  137 

and  that  would  give  rise  to  future  insinuations  against  his 
honesty  if  he  accepted  a  place  in  it. 

And  then  he  had  married  again  in  July,  five  montlis  after 
his  first  wife's  death.  This  may  astonish  those  who  remem- 
ber his  violent  sorrow  at  her  removal  from  him,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  he  had  two  small  children  who  needeil 
a  mother's  care  ;  that  his  temperament  was  one  that  re(iuired 
a  companion  to  love ;  that  they  lived  fast  during  that  stormy 
period,  when  they  breathed  an  atmosphere  of  ozone,  of  fire, 
when  five  months  corresponded  to  five  ordinary  years  ;  lastly, 
it  should  be  known  that  Mademoiselle  Gely  had  been  an 
intimate  friend  of  Madame  Danton.  But  she  certainly  was 
unworthy  of  him,  as  is  amply  shown  by  this  fact :  that  she 
hastened  to  marry  again  after  her  husband's  death,  and  trieti 
as  much  as  possible  to  hide  the  fact  that  she  had  been 
the  wife  of  the  great  Danton.  Possibly,  as  she  was  pious 
and  conservative,  she  somewhat  influenced  his  subsequent 
actions,  for  he  loved  her  as  tenderly  as  he  had  once  loved 
his  first  wife. 

At  any  rate,  when  afterwards,  on  Sept.  8,  one  Gaston  tells 
the  Convention,  "  Danton  has  a  mighty  revolutionary  head. 
No  one  understands  so  well  as  he  to  execute  what  he  him- 
self proposes.  I  therefore  move  that  he  be  added  to  the 
Revolutionary  Government,  in  spite  of  his  protest,"  and  it 
is  so  unanimously  ordered,  he  again  peremptorily  declines. 
"  No,  I  will  not  be  a  member ;  but  as  a  spy  on  it  I  intend  to 
work." 

A  most  fateful  resignation  !  for  while  he  still  for  a  short 
time  continues  to  exercise  his  old  influence  on  the  govern- 
ment, both  from  the  outside,  in  his  own  person,  and  inside 
the  committee,  in  the  person  of  Herault  de  Seychelles,  selected 
in  his  place,  he  very  soon  loses  ground  more  and  more,  —  so 
much  so  even  that  Herault,  his  friend,  is  "put  in  quaran- 
tine," as  was  said  in  the  committee.     And  very  natural.     A 


138  ENERGY  OF  THE   YEAR  ONE.         [Sept.  8, 

statesman  cannot  have  power  when  he  shirks  responsibihty, 
and  without  power  he  soon  loses  all  influence  witli  tlic  mul- 
titude. 

Those  who  now  succeed  him  in  power  are  Robespierre, 
Barere,  Billaud  -  Varennes,  and  Carnot,  —  the  two  last, 
very  good  working-members,  good  men  of  the  second 
rank,  but  after  Danton  not  a  single  man  is  left  fit  to  be 
leader. 

Ah,  the  significance  and  importance  of  a  leader  were  never 
more  apparent,  and  the  lack  more  disastrous,  than  here  !  The 
impulse  once  given  to  affairs  serves,  indeed,  to  procure  for 
the  young  republic  victories  on  the  battle-field  ;  but  other- 
wise the  government,  rudderless,  drifts  away  from  the  jjalhs 
marked  out  by  Danton,  and  commits  one  excess  after  the 
other.  In  spite  of  victories,  France  is  evidently  going  down, 
down. 

As  the  middle  classes  of  France  had  their  song  of  vic- 
tory, Qa  ira.i  so  the  masses,  the  victorious  Jacobins,  have 
now  theirs,  La  Cariiiagii0le.  It  is  during  this  year,  '93, 
sung  everywhere  in  the  public  places ;  yes,  and  danced  ! 
Indeed,  the  dance  is  just  as  important  as  tlie  melody.  The 
words  are  nonsensical,  are,  in  fact,  changed  from  day  to  day, 
but  the  melody  and  the  dance  have  a  tremendous  effect  on 
all :  in  the  aristocrats  it  makes  the  blood  congeal,  and  with 
the  common  people  makes  it  run  quicker.  The  same 

effect  is  caused  even  at  the  present  time  on  a  mere  spectator, 
when  he  watches  the  working-peoj^le  of  Paris  at  tlieir  re- 
unions, with  sparkling  eyes  and  flushed  cheeks,  re])eat  the 
refrain,  — 

"  Ddiis-oiis  la  Carmagjw-le 
Vi-ve  le  son,  vi-ve  le  sou, 
Ddns-ons  la  Carvingno-le 
Vi-ve  le  son  du  canon  !  " 


1793]  LA   CARMAGNOLE.  1 39 

The  most  popular  verse  of  all  was  this  :  — 

"Madam  Veto  avait prctnis  {bis) 
De  faire  egorger  tout  Paris  {bis) ; 
Mais  le  coup  a  tnaiique, 
Grace  d,  nos  canoimiers. 
Dansons"  etc. 

("Madam  ^t'/ti' had  promised 
To  have  all  Parisians  killed ; 
But  the  blow  has  failed, 
Thanks  to  our  cannoneers. 
Let  us  dance  the  Carmagnole 
To  the  sound,  to  the  sound. 
Let  us  dance  the  Carmagnole 
To  the  sound  of  our  cannon !  ") 

'  The  Queen. 


CHAPTER   V. 

FRATERNITY   OF  THE   JACOBINS. 
June  2,  1793,  to  End  of  Year. 

"  God  covimnnicaies  his  will  to  7iten,  written  in  the  events,  an  obscure  text 
and  a  mysterious  language.  Men  straightway  jnake  translations  of  it,  —  hasty, 
incorrect  translations ,  full  of  faults,  of  blanks,  and  contradictions.  The  viosi 
sagacious,  serene,  and  profound  minds  decipher  it  hut  slowly;  and  -when  they 
bring  their  texts,  there  are  already  twenty  translations  among  the  people.  Every 
translation  gives  rise  to  a  party,  and  every  contradiction  to  a  faction  :  and  each 
party  or  faction  believes  it  has  the  only  true  meaning.  Ofteti  those  i}i  power  are 
but  a  faction."  —  Victor  Hugo. 

Constitution  of  '93.  —  The  Maximum.  —  A  Poor  Law.  —  Down  with 
Speculators  !  —  Education.  —  The  Civil  Code,  —  A  Great  Wrong. 
—  "Private  Enterprise"  Indispensable. 

THE  Jacobin  Convention  had  to  build  its  new  temple, 
like  the  Jews  after  the  Babylonian  exile,   "  trowel  in 
one  hand,  sword  in  the  other."  For  it  is  the  greatest 

possible  mistake  to  think  that  the  men  of  the  Mountain  were 
only  men  of  violence  :  on  the  contrary,  they  were  possessed 
with  the  idea  that  it  was  their  mission  to  institute  a  new 
social  order ;  and  now,  having  their  hands  free,  they,  in  that 
former  royal  theatre  of  the  palace  of  the  Tuileries,  set  to 
work  constructing  vigorously,  ay,  feverislily  ! 

What  a  contrast  between  these  two  spheres  of  activities  ! 
It  is  difficult  to  comprehend  that  it  is  the  same  assembly, 
the  same  set  of  men,  now  fighting  for  existence,  now  fasli- 
ioning  a  new  society  ;  that  it  is  the  same  theatre  of  action. 
One  moment  every  thing  is  confusion,  fear,  hate,  sus])icion  : 
all  sorts  of  passions  violently  contend  fur  mastery.  To  exter- 
140 


1793-1       CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-THREE.        141 

minate  or  be  exterminated,  is  the  question.  The  next  mo- 
ment, as  by  the  turning  of  a  kaleidoscope,  we  seem  abruptly 
removed  to  an  academy  of  learning,  where  we  hear  the  most 
ardent  revolutionists  discuss — in  curious,  high-flown  periods 
certainly,  but  with  remarkable  moderation  and  gentleness  — 
the  most  generous  plans  for  bettering  the  condition  of  tlicir 
fellow-creatures,  and,  be  it  noted,  —  for  this  constitutes  their 
glory,  —  for  bettering  the  condition  of  classes  to  w/iich  not 
one  of  thcni  belonged.  This  is  in  itself  a  most  curious 

fact :  that  in  such  a  great  overturning  of  society  not  one  man 
or  woman  of  the  working  classes  rose  to  a  leading  position. 
They  exercised,  as  we  have  seen,  a  considerable  influence 
on  events  in  corpore,  in  masses,  and  in  a  somewhat  inarticu- 
late fashion,  but  individually  they  remained  dumb.  What  a 
modesty  ! 

Yes,  these  bourgeois  patrons  and  advocates  did  their 
full  duty  to  their  clients,  and  form  in  this  respect  the  most 
complete  contrast  to  the  plutocrats,  Girondins,  and  others. 
That  which  the  latter  should  have  done,  and  never  did  be- 
fore or  since,  that  the  Jacobins  performed  to  the  best  of 
their  ability ;  and  this  fact  raises  them  above  every  legislative 
assembly  that  ever  sat  in  any  country.  They  were  mindful 
of  their  helpless  fellow-citizens ;  they  did  "  guard  against 
gluts,"  and  against  scarcity  too,  and  did  "  preside  over  the 
apportionment  and  distribution  of  wages  for  work  done," 
as  Carlyle  has  demanded  of  our  plutocrats.  That  chronic 
evil  of  Paris  a  century  ago,  famine,  did  not  put  in  an  ap- 
pearance this  winter.  In  other  words,  though  hardly  sure 
of  their  heads  for  the  space  of  twenty-four  hours,  they  yet 
tried  faithfully  to  realize,  as  a  counter-weight  to  Individual- 
ism, pRATRRNrrY,  whicli  at  bottom  is  simply  the  conscious, 
frank  acknowledgment  of  that  interdependence  which,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  binds  us  together  in  society. 

"  But  they  fliilcJ ;  in  spite  of  the  absolute   power  they 


142  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.        [June, 

enjoyed  for  fourteen  months,  with  none  so  much  as  to  gain- 
say them,  they  failed,"  so  say  both  their  enemies,  all  re- 
actionists, and  their  friends,  our  modern  reformers ;  and  the 
latter  add,  "Ergo,  the  French  Revolution  fiiiled." 

Well,  in  this  chapter  we  have  not  to  do  with  the  whole 
Jacobin  reign,  but  only  with  the  period  after  June  2  in  which 
Danton's  influence  was  paramount.  During  these  few  months 
the  Convention  was  a  most  noble  assembly,  and  passed  or 
initiated  those  remarkable  measures  that  are  now  to  be  dis- 
cussed. During  that  time  the  Convention  was  perfectly 
successful,  remarkably  successful,  and  really  laid  firmly  the 
foundation  of  the  new  society. 

Then  came  the  fatal  change :  the  Convention  passed 
under  the  influence  first  of  Hubert,  then  of  Robespierre. 
They  then  became,  in  the  words  of  Victor  Hugo  at  the  head 
of  this  chapter,  "a  faction."  They  then  commenced  to  inter- 
pret "God's  mysterious  ityX''  falsely — too  hastily.  More 
than  that,  they  got  not  only  a  wrong  conception  of  the  will  of 
the  Power  behind  Evolution,  a  wrong  conception  of  the  social 
order  that  then  and  there  was  to  be  instituted  in  France,  but 
they  also — just. because  they  were  Frenchmen,  and  there- 
fore deemed  nothing  gained  before  they  had  realized  the 
last  conclusion  of  the  syllogism  —  were  far  too  hasty  in  re- 
ducing that  conception  of  theirs  to  practice.  They  in  con- 
sequence failed,  and  the  foundation  they  had  laid  was  torn 
up.  But  when  our  reformers  say  that  this  implies  the  failure 
of  the  Revolution  itself,  they  thereby  show  that  they  them- 
selves share  the  illusion  of  the  Jacobins ;  that  they  also  ha\e 
a  wrong  translation  of  "the  mysterious  text."  They  believe, 
as  the  Jacobins  did  when  they  became  "a  faction,"  that  the 
millennium  could  and  should  have  been  immediately  organ- 
ized. The  truth  is,  that  what  they  started  in  doing,  and  did 
well,  was  pretty  nearly  all  that  could  be  done. 

We  have  seen  that  the  National  Convention  had  in  ])leni- 


1793-]      CONSTITUTIOX  OF  NINETY-THREE.       143 

tude  all  powers,  whether  legislative,  executive,  or  judicial. 
It  had  flung  to  the  wind  the  usual  middle-class  formula 
of  a  "division  of  powers."  And  these  powers  it  exercised 
through  its  committees  and  the  commissioners  it  was  con- 
stantly sending  out  into  the  departments  and  to  the  armies. 

There  were  not  less  than  twenty-two  committees.  The 
most  important  were,  on  the  Consfltiifion,  of  whicli  Danton 
and  Herault  de  S^chelles,  his  intimate  friend,  were  mem- 
bers ;  of  Public  Welfare,  of  which  Danton  ceased  to  form 
part  in  August ;  of  General  Security,  which  had  charge  of 
the  national  police,  and  whose  first  president  was  Herault 
(this  committee  remained  in  the  hands  of  the  Dantonists  as 
long  as  they  had  power  at  all,  and  was  second  in  importance 
only  to  that  of  Public  Welfare^  ;  on  Education,  with  Lakanal 
for  chief;  oti  Finance,  whose  soul  was  Cambon,  also  a  true 
friend  of  Danton ;  on  Legislation,  with  Cambaceres  for  di- 
rector; and  lastly,  on  War,  where  Carnot  had  the  lead.  It 
was  by  the  incessant  labors  of  these  committees  that  the 
Convention  carried  on  its  immense  work,  while  breathing  an 
atmosphere  of  fire. 

The  very  first  thing  they  did  after  ousting  the  Girondins  was 
to  perform  the  work  for  which  the  Convention  had  mainly 
convened,  but  which  the  danger  of  the  country  had  postponed 
from  month  to  month,  —  to  frame  and  adopt  a  nera  con- 
stitution. This  work,  known  thereafter  by  the  name  of  the 
Constitution  of  Ni net}'- three,  was  performed  with  feverish 
haste ;  and  though  not  in  force  for  even  a  day,  being  sus- 
pended before  even  receiving  the  sanction  of  the  people,  it 
is  important  as  embodying  the  principles  that  governed  the 
Jacobins  in  all  their  measures. 

From  the  very  first  there  had  been  a  Committee  on  the 
Constitution.  Danton  was  a  member  of  it ;  but  the  great 
majority  were  Girondins,  and  the  principal  of  them  the  noble 
Condorcet.     This  philosopher  had  for  a  considerable   time 


144  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.        [June, 

had  reaily  tlic  draft  of  a  constitution,  on  which  he  had  re- 
peatedly but  vainly  asked  the  Convention  to  take  action. 
After  June  2  Danton  resigns  his  membership ;  and  in  his 
place,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  expelled  Girondins,  his  friend 
H(^rault  de  S^chelles  and  other  Jacobins  are  elected.  They 
take  up  the  draft  of  Condorcet ;  make,  in  a  couple  of  da)'s, 
considerable  changes  in  it,  then  submit  it  to  the  Commit- 
tee oj  Public  IVei/are,  where  one  day  is  devoted  to  examining 
and  slightly  amending  it;  and  finally,  on  the  loth,  the'dis- 
cussion  of  it  begins  in  the  Convention,  which  adopts  it  on 
June  23,  —  the  whole  work  thus  done  in  three  weeks. 

The  differences  between  the  draft  of  Condorcet  and  the 
constitution  as  adopted  were  very  marked  and  highly  sug- 
gestive. 

First,  as  to  style  :  the  Girondin  draft  was  dry  and  diffuse ; 
the  Jacobin  Constitution  laconic,  giving  the  impression  of 
gigantic  letters  hewn  into  granite  and  painted  in  warm  colors. 
One  of  its  first  articles  ran,  — 

"  French  citizens  are  :  every  foreigner  of  the  full  age  of 
twenty-one  who  has  resided  one  year  in  France,  and  lives 
there  by  his  labor,  or  acquires  landed  property,  or  marries 
a  French  citizen,  or  adopts  an  infaiit,  or  supports  an  old 
person.^'' 

One  of  its  last  articles  said,  — 

"  The  French  Republic  will  not  intermeddle  with  the  gov- 
ernment of  foreign  nations.  It  gives  asylum  to  all  foreigners 
banished  from  tlicir  country  for  the  cause  of  liberty.  It  re- 
fuses asylum  to  tyrants.^'' 

But  the  most  important  difference  was  the  spirit  that 
pervaded  the  two  documents  from  first  to  last. 

The  draft  of  Condorcet  was  the  charter  of  individualism. 
It  had  no  conception  of  humanity,  but  only  of  a  collection 
of  individuals,  each  standing  aloof  from,  and  sharply,  even 
hostiicly,  opposed  to  others  ;  clad  to  the  teeth  in  his  "rii^^hts," 


1793-1       CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-THREE.       145 

as  in  a  coat-of-mail.  What  it  concerned  itself  about,  and  was 
solicitous  for,  was  to  defend  these  individuals  from  oppression 
and  interference  from  others.  It  was  a  scheme  oi guaranties. 
It  guaranteed  the  liberty  of  the  person  and  the  press,  and 
the  security  of  the  home,  and  to  that  end  surrounded  them 
with  a  long  array  of  sacramental  forms,  exactly  as  our  con- 
stitutions do.  It  prescribed  minutely  when,  how,  for  what 
causes,  and  by  whom  arrests  might  be  made,  and  search- 
warrants  issued.  In  other  words,  this  Girondin  draft,  as  was 
natural,  gave  expression  to  middle-class,  plutocrat  ideas,  — 
protected  those  who  sufficed  themselves  ;  but,  if  the  burden 
was  too  heavy  for  the  weak,  so  much  the  worse  for  the  weak. 
Its  motto  was  simply,  "  No  despotism." 

The  Jacobin  Constitution,  on  the  other  hand,  was  a  charter 
of  fraternity.  It  did  not  look  on  society  as  a  mass  of 
individuals,  but  as  an  organic  loholc.  It,  however,  did  not 
overlook  the  rights  of  individuals,  for  we  read,  — 

"  This  constitution  guarantees  to  all  Frenchmen  equality, 
liberty,  security,  property,  the  free  exercise  of  religion,  a 
common  education,  public  assistance,  unfettered  freedom 
of  the  press  and  of  public  gatherings." 

But  that  is  also  all ;  and  this,  it  will  be  seen,  is  very 
vague,  very  indefinite.  The  fact  is,  they  were  pre-occupied 
with  the  duties  of  society,  —  pre-occupied  with  the  weak  that 
were  to  be  protected,  the  poor  that  were  to  be  fed,  the  un- 
fortunate that  were  to  be  saved,  not  merely  from  oppression, 
but  from  abandonment.  Therefore,  when  the  Girondin  draft 
defined  liberty  as  "  consisting  in  doing  all  things  not  con- 
trary to  the  rights  of  others,"  they  added,  "  It  must  have 
for  rule  justice.'' 

Condorcet's  draft  simply  stated  that  public  assistance 
should  be  at  the  charge  of  the  State.  That  did  not  satisfy 
the  Jacobins.  They  laid  it  down  distinctly,  so  that  he  who 
runs  may  read  :   "  Society  owes  subsistence  to  unfortunate 


146  FRATERiXITV  OF  THE  JACOniNS.         [June, 

citizens,  either  by  procuring  them  work,  or,  in  case  they  are 
unable  to  work,  by  furnishing  them  means  of  existence." 

Condorcet's  draft  was  absokitely  silent  on  the  interde- 
pendence of  men.  The  Jacobins  solemnly  declared,  "It  is 
to  be  accounted  an  injury  to  the  social  organism  when  one 
of  its  members  is  injured." 

Their  motto,  their  dominant  idea,  then,  was  social  pro- 
tection; and  this  fact  should  with  all  men  of  heart,  with 
the  working  classes  especially,  cover  these  bourgeois  with  a 
mantle  of  charity. 

That  was  their  great  merit :  tliat,  however  shallow  their 
reasoning  might  be,  they  felt  that  no  man  does  eviluntempted, 
unless  he  have  all  other  men  to  help  him  to  it  by  standing 
aloof  from  him,  and  leaving  him  in  abject  penury,  physical 
or  moral. 

Their  great  merit :  that  they  instinctively  felt  that  our 
human  failures  generally  —  yea,  even  our  thieves  and  murder- 
ers to  a  great  extent  —  should  be  ascribed  to  the  organized 
inclemency  of  man  to  man  ;  to  society  being  a  niggard  steza- 
ard  of  nature's  bounties  and  the  accumulated  labors  of  past 
generations. 

Intimately  connected  with  this  difference  in  spirit  is  the 
circumstance  that  the  Jacobin  Constitution  commenced  with 
these  words  :  "  In  the  presence  of,  and  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Supreme  Being,  the  French  people  declare,"  while 
the  Girondin  draft  had  no  corresponding  phrase  anywhere. 

The  Jacobins  were  not  orthodox  believers,  any  more  than 
the  Girondins.  They,  just  as  little  as  these  latter,  bcHeved 
in  a  lawless  ruler  outside  humanity,  rather  leaning  to  the 
side  of  the  rich  and  powerful ;  but,  as  has  been  said,  tliey 
believed  in  humanity,  wliile  the  Girondins  could  see  only  a 
crowd  of  independent  beings.  ^Vhilc,  therefore,  the  latter, 
like  Bonaparte  later  on,  had  "  no  need  of  the  hypothesis  "  of 
a  Supreme  Spirit,  the  Jacobins  precisely  had  such  a  need. 


i793.]      CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-THREE.       147 

They  did  very  much  need  a  mystic  bond  to  biiid  society 
together,  and  also  the  highest  possible  moral  sanction  for  the 
stern  duties  on  which  they  insisted. 

Then  there  was  another  noticeable  difference  between  the 
two  documents,  that  on  first  view  may  puzzle  the  readers  : 
this,  that  Condorcet's  draft  seemed  the  most  democratic 
instrument. 

His  draft  divided  France  into  a  great  number  of  small 
primary  assemblies,  in  which  the  people  were  to  elect  not 
only  the  members  of  the  national  Legislature,  but  also  all 
executive  officers  of  departments  and  the  State,  about  in  the 
same  way  as  the  people  of  one  of  our  States  elect  their  gov- 
ernor. The  Girondins  seemed  already,  then,  to  have  learned 
that  universal  suffrage,  when  used  for  the  selection  of  men, 
is  perfectly  compatible  with  the  narrowest  of  class  interests  ; 
that  is  to  say,  they  had  already  learned  the  power  of  wealth, 
of  glib  talkers,  of  intriguers,  over  a  poor,  ignorant,  ingenuous 
body  of  voters. 

The  Jacobins  had  learned  that  too.  They  were  not 
less  democratic  than  their  brother  boia-geois,  but  they  were 
honest  democrats,  and  they  had  a,  for  their  time,  really 
remarkable  insight  into  the  essence  of  democracy.  They 
knew  very  well  that  a  nation's  business  at  no  time  —  and, 
above  all,  the  business  of  France  at  that  time  —  can  be  car- 
ried on  by  votes  of  town-meetings ;  "  by  the  counting  of 
heads,"  as  Carlyle  has  it.  They  knew — they  showed  that 
by  their  acts  —  that  an  administration  freely  consented  fo  by 
all,  by  the  competent,  skilful,  and  wise,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
whole  society,  is  a  truly  democratic  administration.  They 
knew  also  that  competent  and  wise  administrators  can- 
not possibly  be  selected  by  the  whole  people  in  primary 
assemblies;  that  only  persons  in  a  position  to  know  certain 
personalities  are  able  to  tell  whether  tliey  are  competent  and 
wise,  or  otherwise.     And  it  is  very  much  to  be  wished  that 


148  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.         [June, 

those  who  arc  to  inaugurate  the  New  Social  Order  will 
know  that  too. 

The  Jacobins,  therefore,  amended  the  (iirondin  draft  in 
this  way  :  that  while  they  let  the  people,  in  their  primary 
assemblies,  elect  their  members  of  the  Legislature,  as  for 
executive  officers  they  provided  that  the  primary  assemblies 
should  select  departmental  electoral  assemblies,  and  these 
should  have  the  function  of  electing  administrators  of  the 
departments,  and  nominating  a  number  of  men  froni'vyhom 
the  national  Legislature  was  to  appoint  the  executive  officers 
of  the  State. 

The  Jacobins  did  not  at  all,  as  it  seemed,  and  as  they 
have  been  charged  with,  mistrust  universal  suffrage,  —  a  mis- 
trust which,  however,  the  second  Bonaparte's  plebiscites 
would  amply  justify ;  but,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they  did  not, 
nor  did  they  want  to,  govern  from  above.  They  simply  said 
that  the  people  at  large  are  wholly  unfit  for  the  function  of 
selecting  agents  to  do  the  nation's  business,  a  function  they 
will  be  eternally  unfit  for.  But,  further  :  they  discovered  the 
function  for  which  the  people  are  fit ;  to  wit,  that  of  passing 
upon  laws  after  they  are  made,  and  saying  whether  they  want 
them  or  not.  That  is  to  say,  they  inaugurated  the  refe- 
rendum, at  first  to  a  very  limited  extent  certainly.  They 
divided  the  expression  of  the  national  will  into  two  classes, 
decrees  and  laws  ;  the  former  were  the  enactments  that  were 
urgent,  and  therefore  operative  without  the  people's  assent ; 
tlie  "laws"  became  valid  after  forty  days,  unless  a_ certain 
number  of  primary  assemblies  had  meanwhile  protested. 

What  the  Jacobins  were  after,  and  undoubtedly  would  have 
secured,  was  a  government  by  the  competent  for  the  masses  ; 
what  the  Girondins  were  after,  and  did  afterwards  secure, 
was  a  government  by  the  middle  classes  for  the  middle  classes. 

Among  the  clauses  where  the  Jacobin  Constitution  agreed 
with  the  Girondin  draft  were  those  on  property  and  unre- 


1793.]       CONSTITUTION  OF  NINETY-THREE.       149 

stricted  private  enterprise.  The  charge  against  the  Jacobins 
which  is  found  in  so  many  histories,  and  particularly  in  the 
latest  of  them,  by  Von  Sybel,  that  they  wanted  to  abulisli 
property  rights  in  any  shape,  is  the  grossest  falsehood.  In 
that  respect  they  were  precisely  typical  middle-class  men, 
most  conservative  even. 

Only  one  Jacobin  has  written  Memoirs :  it  is  the  physician 
Baudot,  a  member  of  the  Convention.  Certainly  the  fact 
that  such  a  man  sat  on  the  top  of  the  Mountain  ■  during  the 
whole  term  of  the  Convention,  without  hearing  a  word  from 
Danton,  from  Robespierre,  or  anybody  else,  destructive  of 
property,  or  about  interference  with  property  in  any  way,  is 
strong  proof  that  such  ideas  did  not  exist  in  their  heads 
at  all.  These  are  his  words  :  "  The  Convention  regarded 
property  as  the  fundamental  basis  for  social  order.  I  never 
heard  any  member  of  that  assembly  make  any  proposition 
against  the  principle.  Not  a  word,  not  a  phrase,  can  be 
quoted."     And  he  was  in  the  secret  of  the  Jacobins. 

On  all  economic  subjects,  it  may  be  said,  they  believe 
like  their  brother  boio-gcois.  Just  as  they,  with  the  Giron- 
dins,  beheved  that  property  is  the  necessary  foundation  of 
society,  so  they  believed  with  them  that  the  wage  system, 
competition,  and  "  private  enterprise,"  lately  freed  from  all 
shackles,  would  prove  unmixed  blessings  to  all  classes,  work- 
people as  well  as  employers;  and  the  greater  the  bless- 
ings, the  more  unfettered  they  were  ;  that  there  was,  indeed, 
no  other  system  under  which  industry  could  be  so  well 
carried  on.  And  so  we  find  that  the  articles  that  treat 
of  property  in  the  Constitution  of  '93  are  just  like  those  of 
the  Code  in  force  in  France  to-day.  Nay,  more. 

AVhen  Robespierre  (who  on  this  subject  really  seemed  to 
have  a  prophetic  insiglit  into  the  future)  proposed  two 
amendments  that  in  our  days  should  l)e  acknowledged  excel- 

'  So  called  because  llicir  seats  were  raised  one  above  another,  .inipliitlieatrically. 


I50  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.         [June, 

lent  ones,  —  to  wit,  to  define  "  property  "  as  that  part  of  the 
fruits  of  a  citizen's  labors  which  the  law  guarantees  to  him, 
and  forbidding  any  industry  found  to  be  immoral  and 
harmful  to  the  well-being  of  others  (like  our  "  corners  "),  — 
the  whole  Convention  ranged  itself  round  the  draft  of 
Cordorcet  against  him. 

And  as  to  "private  enterprise,"  they  were  so  jealous  of 
it  that  they  violently  opposed  themselves  to  the  establish- 
ment of  associations  both  of  work-people  and  employers 
(to  which  opposition  it  is  due  that  trades-unions  were  not 
legalized  in  France  till  1884).  This,  again,  was  7wt  caused 
by  ill-will  on  their  i)art  to  workingmen,  for  they  say  in  their 
constitution,  naively,  "  Only  the  bond  of  help  and  gratitude 
w/// exist  between  employed  and  employer." 
*         *         * 

As  Danton  was  a  lawyer  by  profession,  it  was  not  so  very 
remarkable  that  he  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  spheres 
in  which  we  hitherto  have  seen  him  active.  It  is  more 
remarkable  that  we  are  now  going  to  find  liim  taking  an 
equal  interest,  and  equally  active,  in  matters  that  might  be 
supposed  entirely  foreign  to  his  mind.  Thus  we  shall  find 
that  it  is  he,  again,  who  makes  the  decisive  motions  on 
economic  and  educational  subjects.  But,  to  speak  the 
truth,  this  is  the  case  with  all  these  wonderful  conventionals  : 
they  seem  equally  at  home,  and  masters,  whether  in  the 
tribune  or  at  the  head  of  the  armies,  whether  in  the  current 
jjhilosophy  or  in  commerce. 

Danton  never  pretended  to  be  a  politico-economist.  In 
that  field  he  entirely  relied  on  and  supported  the  judgment 
of  his  friend  Caml)on,  the  celebrated  revolutionary  finance 
minister.  But,  as  mentioned  in  the  preceding  chap- 

ter, Danton  had,  down  in  the  Low  Countries,  thought  very 
deeply  on  economic  subjects,  and  had  especially  matured  a 
scheme,  sketched   in   a    memorandum    in    his    own    liand- 


1793.]  THE  ''  MAXIM UMr  15  I 

writing,  —  a  very  rare  relic,  now  found  in  tlie  French 
national  archives,  —  as  follows  :  "  The  Convention  decrees, 
that,  in  every  section  of  the  republic  where  the  price  of 
corn  is  not  in  a  just  proportion  to  wages  paid,  the  treasury 
shall  levy  a  contribution  on  the  rich,  out  of  which  shall  be 
defrayed  the  difference  between  such  price  of  corn  and  the 
wages  of  the  needy."  This  proposal  he  causes  to  be  made 
into  a  law  on  the  2d  of  April. 

We  have  seen  the  whole  Convention  partisans  of  free 
competition  and  private  enterprise,  —  Jacobins  just  as  much 
as  Girondins.  But  circumstances  compelled  them  to  vio- 
late their  cherished  convictions,  and  adopt  measures  con- 
siderably restricting  competition.  The  boldest  of  these 
extraordinary  measures  was  the  maximian  ;  that  is  to  say, 
the  highest  price  for  wares. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  had,  as  we  saw,  rehabilitated 
the  finances  by  issuing  assignats  based  on  the  confiscated 
estates.  This  basis  amounted  to  fifteen  milliards  of  francs, 
or  three  thousand  million  dollars.  The  assignats  certainly 
would  have  remained  at  par  if  the  counter-Revolution, 
crushed  at  home  and  overwhelmed  on  the  frontiers,  had  not 
resorted  to  the  most  shameful  and  monstrous  forgery  of 
them,  reduced  to  a  perfect  system,  and  carried  on  in  Lon- 
don, Holland,  and  Switzerland.  To  this  crime  the 
Convention  opposed  —  death  !  But  that  did  not  prevent 
the  paper  money  from  sinking  in  value  ;  and  that  conse- 
quently made  all  necessaries  of  life,  and  especially  corn  and 
bread,  rise  in  price. 

To  bring  relief  to  the  poor,  and  also  to  raise  the  paper 
again  to  par,  the  first  law  of  maximum  was  passed  May  3, 
1793.     It  ran  as  follows  :  — 

"  Every  merchant  and  proprietor  of  corn  and  flour  shall 
make  to  the  municipality  of  his  domicile  a  declaration  as  to 
the  quantity  and  nature  of  what  he  has  in  his  possession. 


152  FRATERXITV  OF  THE  JACOBINS.        [Sept., 

"  Corn  and  flour  must  be  sold  only  in  the  public  markets. 
Nevertheless,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  private  individuals  to  buy 
provisions  from  the  farmers,  merchants,  or  proprietors  of 
their  canton,  if  they  procure  a  certificate  from  the  munici- 
pality to  the  effect  that  they  do  not  deal  in  these  articles, 
and  that  their  purchases  are  necessary  for  their  own  con- 
sumption for  a  month. 

"  The  average  price  at  which  each  kind  of  corn  shall  have 
been  sold  between  Jan.  i  and  May  i,  1793,  shall' be  the 
maxitmitn,  above  which  corn  must  not  be  sold. 

"  Thus  fixed,  the  maxiinum  shall  be  reduced  in  the  fol- 
lowing proportions  :  On  the  ist  of  June  by  one- tenth,  on 
the  ist  of  July  by  two-tenths,  on  the  ist  of  August  by  three- 
tenths,  and  on  the  ist  of  September  by  four- tenths. 

''  Anybody  who  buys  or  sells  above  the  maximuni  shall 
be  fined  from  three  hundred  to  a  thousand  francs,  and  his 
corn  or  flour  confiscated. 

"  Those  who,  with  design,  destroy  or  remove  corn  or  flour 
shall  be  punished  with  deaths 

Now,  this  law  did  provide  for  the  necessities  of  the 
moment,  and  did  prevent  very  grave  perils  ;  at  the  same 
time,  it  necessarily  gave  occasion  to  many  obnoxious  and 
vexatious  inspections.  Therefore,  also,  the  Girondin  mem- 
bers of  the  Convention  had  opposed  it  all  they  dared.  But 
the  necessity  was  imminent,  and  their  economic  formula  of 
Free  Competition  had  to  give  way. 

Remember  that  France  at  that  time  was  engaged  in  a 
titanic  struggle,  forcing  back  all  her  enemies  north,  south, 
east,  and  west,  and  compelling  almost  the  world  to  recoil 
in  astonishment  at  her  approach.  It  is  not  by  ordinary 
means  that  such  prodigies  are  accomplished. 

To  feed  fourteen  armies  on  the  frontiers  while  a  fratri- 
cidal struggle  is  raging  within,  and  when  all  the  sources  of 
wealth  are  dried  up,  is  a  problem  wliich  it  is  doubtful  that 


1793.]  THE  ''  maximum:'  153 

Free  Competition  could  ha/e  solveil,  but  wliich  the  assii^nats, 
sustained  by  the  maximiun,  did  solve. 

Undoubtedly  the  establishment  of  the  maximum  was  in 
flagrant  opposition  to  individualism  and  the  doctrine  of 
laissez-faire ;  and  this  fact  remained  the  grand  obstacle, 
since  the  middle  classes  were  de  facto  in  social  power  since 
the  destruction  of  feudalism.  Private  interests  opposed 
themselves  all  they  could  to  the  exigencies  of  social  welfare, 
and  the  counter-Revolution  encouraged  this  resistance  all 
it  could  and  dared.  The  farmers  would  not  bring  their 
corn  to  market,  and  force  had  to  be  used.  Moreover, 
certain  local  executive  officers,  speculating  privately,  neg- 
lected to  fix  the  maximum. 

And  then,  there  was  in  tlie  law,  as  it  stood,  one  great  fault, 
overlooked  by  the  Convention,  to  whom  the  whole  thing 
was  an  experiment,  which  fault  soon  became  apparent  in 
practice,  and  made  itself  felt.  Corn  showed  a  most  natural 
tendency  to  go  from  the  departments  where  it  was  cheap 
to  other  departments  where  it  was  dear. 

It  is  now  and  here  that  Danton,  carrying  his  wonted 
boldness  into  the  economic  field,  cuts  the  Gordian  knot. 
On  the  4th  of  September,  1 793,  he  makes  the  following 
motion,  which  is  immediately  adopted  :  — 

"  From  to-day's  date  the  quintal  [two  hundred  pounds] 
of  wheat  shall,  until  Oct.  i,  1794,  over  the  whole  extent  of 
the  republic,  not  exceed  fourteen  livres  [about  ^2.80]." 

The  memorandum  above  mentioned  showed  that  Danton 
was  prepared,  if  occasion  required  it,  to  cut  Gordian  knots, 
in  economics  as  elsewhere.  The  occasion  had  come  ;  he 
did  it.  And  it  proved  successful.     Corn  was,  if  not 

l)lenty,  at  all  events  to  be  had  in  sufficient  quantity,  at  that 
price,  up  to  the  fall  of  Robespierre. 

But  it  will  be  easily  perceived  that  these  bokl  innovators 
would   soon  be  brought  to  ask  themselves,    "  If  we  lix  a 


154  FRATERNITY  OF   THE  JACOB  IAS.        [Sept., 

maximum  for  wheat,  why  not  fix  it  for  other  articles  of  jirune 
necessity?"  For  them,  again,  it  was  only  a  step  from  regu- 
lating the  sale  of  commodities  to  dealing  with  the  rate  of 
wages. 

Hence  another  law,  decreed  Sept.  29,  1 793  :  — 

"  The  objects  of  first  necessity,  on  which  the  Convention 
hereby  fixes  a  maximum,  are,  fresh  and  salt  meat,  pork, 
butter,  sweet-oil,  catde,  salt-fish,  wine,  whiskey,  vinegar, 
cider,  beer,  firewood,  charcoal,  coal,  candles,  salt,  soap, 
potash,  sugar,  honey,  white  paper,  leather,  iron,  lead,  steel, 
copper,  linen  and  woollen  stuffs,  cloths,  raw  materials  for 
factories,  wooden  and  leather  shoes,  and  tobacco. 

"Th.Q  ^naximum  for  firewood  and  charcoal  shall  be  dieir 
price  in  1 790,  and  one-twentieth  addetl. 

"The  maximum  for  tobacco  shall  be  twenty  cents  a  pound  ; 
for  salt,  two  cents  a  pound  ;  for  soap,  twenty-one  cents  a 
pound. 

''The  maximum  for  all  other  above-mentioned  articles 
shall  be,  over  the  whole  extent  of  the  republic,  until  next 
month  of  September,  the  prices  of  each  in  1790,  as  shown 
by  the  price-currents,  and  onc-tJiird  added  ;  deduction  being 
made  of  all  duties  then  levied. 

"The  maxi/iu/ii!  for  all  wages  and  prices  paid  for  piece- 
work shall  be,  until  next  September,  what  they  were  in  1790, 
with  one-half  atlded,  to  be  determined  by  the  various  gen- 
eral councils  of  communes." 

The  law  was  guarded  by  severe  ix'nalties  :  "  All  -persons 
buying  or  selling  above  the  maximum  shall  be  punished  by 
a  fine,  double  the  value  of  the  object  sold,  and  inscribed 
among  the  suspected.^^ 

That  law  was  certainly  a  stronger  slap  in  the  face  of  the 
doctrine  of  laissez-faire  and  the  principle  of  demand  and 
sui)ply.  It  was  a  kind  of  democratic  i)rotest  against  con- 
sidering a  state  of  society  which  allows  demand  and  supply 


I793-]  THE  ''  maximum:'  155 

to  rule,  unharnessed  so  to  say,  as  "  the  best  of  all  possible 
words  "  —  except  for  the  plutocrats. 

But  now  the  smaller  middle  class  —  the  smaller  middle- 
men —  rebelled.  As  soon  as  the  law  was  proclaimed,  dealers 
were  seen  closing  their  shops,  declaring  they  had  no  more 
sugar,  oil,  candles ;  manufacturers  threatened  to  close  their 
factories.  Those  who  had  ready  money  took  advantage  of 
this  state  of  things,  and  soon  emptied  all  the  shops.  The 
police  had  to  interfere,  and  forbid  traders  to  deliver  more  of 
one  merchandise  to  one  than  to  another. 

It  was  then  seen  that  the  maximum  had  to  embrace  all 
the  agents  in  production ;  as  the  law  stood,  it  very  much 
wronged  the  retailer.  The  maximitin  ought  to  commence 
at  the  source. 

The  law  was  therefore  amended  as  follows  :  — 

"The  price  of  every  kind  of  merchandise  comprised  in 
the  law  of  maximum  shall  be  what  it  was  in  1 790,  at  tlic 
place  of  its  production,  plus  one-third  of  said  price,  plus 
five  per  cent  for  the  wholesaler,  plus  five  per  cent  for  the 
retailer,  and,  furthermore,  a  fixed  price  per  mile  for  trans- 
port added." 

Another  decree  ordered  the  Committee  on  Subsistence  to 
make  out  a  so-called  Tableau  of  Maximum,  which  should 
make  known  the  cost  of  raw  materials  and  the  values  which 
labor  added  to  the  products. 

A  truly  gigantic  work,  and  of  an  imposing  novelty  !  All 
the  mysteries  of  production  were  explored  ;  daylight  was  let 
into  all  factories  ;  industry  was  interrogated  by  commissioners 
as  indefatigable  as  learned,  and  from  their  labors  issued  an 
immense  statistical  work,  —  the  said  Tableau. 

This  law  did  its  work  well.  We  cannot  sufficiently  insist 
on  this  :  that  the  assignats  rose  io  par  again,  and  remained 
pretty  nearly  there  until  the  fall  of  Robespierre  ;  that  these 
assignats  sustained  fourteen  armies,  and  were  the  instruments 


1 5  6  FRA  TERNIT] '  OF  THE  J  A  Ci  )IUXS.        [  Sept. , 


that  saved  France  ;  and,  further,  tliat  //  was  this  maximum 
that  sustained  the  assignats  and  gave  them  life. 

"However,  the  normal  working  of  the  maximumm\(\Q\\h\.- 
edly  presupposes  a  social  organization  founded  on  intimate 
harmony  between  all  interests  [a  Co-operative  Common- 
wealth, so  to  speak].  Had  the  Revolution  been  allowed  to 
pursue  the  path  farther,  those  who  established  the  maximum 
would  have  been  led,  step  by  step,  to  a  social  revolution,  the 
depth  of  which  they  could  not  possibly  at  the  time'  have 
foreseen,"  thinks  Louis  Blanc. 

I,  on  the  contrary,  should  say  that  it  would  have  obviated 
all  the  difficulties  of  the  transition  period  which  we  now 
experience,  and  smoothed  the  passage  over  into  the  New 
Social  Order. 

Note,  first,  what  this  Tableau  really  was.  Just  as  the  French, 
as  we  saw,  first  inaugurated  our  Universal  Expositions,  so 
this  Tableau  was  the  first  precedent  for  the  splendid  sta- 
tistical tables  which  are  periodically  issued  by  the  unique 
Bureaus  of  Statistics  of  Labor  of  the  United  States,  to 
which  no  other  country  as  yet  has  any  thing  corresponding. 

We  have  seen  that  the  wage-system,  and  competition,  and 
"private  enterprise,"  were  necessary  in  order  to  accomplish 
the  great  desideratum,  —  increase  of  productive  power.  That 
has  been  splendidly  accomjilished.  The  wage-system  and 
competition  have  thus  justified  themselves,  and  have  i)roved 
themselves  historic  necessities. 

Note,  also,  that  the  Jacobins  were  perfectly  in  accord  witli 
their  brother  bourgeois  as  to  the  necessity  and  desiral)ility 
of  this  wage-system  and  competition. 

But  there  are  some  decidedly  evil  effects  following  at  the 
heel  of  the  good  ones.  Competition  now  causes  every  one 
to  produce  for  himself,  sell  for  himself,  ///  secret,  without 
knowing  what  his  rivals  ])roduro  and  sell.  And  yet  his  very 
success  depends  on  his  knowing  this. 


1793- ]  A   POOR-LAW.  157 

These  arc  just  the  evils  that  this  Tableau,  for  which  they 
thus  had  by  circumstances  been  forced  to  provide,  would 
have  obviated.  It  would  have  brought  order  into  what  lu.s 
become  anarchy.  It  would  have  prevented  the  secrecy.  It 
would,  just  what  now  our  Bureaus  of  Statistics  of  Labor  are 
commencing  to  do,  have  enlightened  our  "movers  in  pro- 
duction "  as  to  their  own  interests,  have  told  them  how  best 
to  use  their  resources,  and  have  brought  about  orgaiiizafion 
of  industry,  so  much  desired ;  it  would  not,  as  Louis  Blanc 
thinks,  have  led  to  the  "  Co-operative  Commonwealth,"  but 
simply  have  made  this  transition  period  more  tolerable  to  all 
concerned,  and  prevented  the  wage-system  and  competition 
from  doing  more  harm  than  good,  as  they  are  at  the  present 
day.  France  could,  by  leading  in  industry,  have  continued  to 
lead  the  world.  It  is  curious  to  think  that  at  that  very 

moment  Saint-Simon,  the  social  philosopher,  was  engaged  in 
land  speculations,  to  gain  means  to  think  out  and  publish  an 
Organization  of  Industry  —  with  the  plutocrats  for  chiefs. 
*         *         * 

The  Jacobin  Convention  made,  as  has  been  intimated, 
several  tentatives  to  rtaWzQ  fraternity,  in  striking  contrast  to 
their  plutocratic  brethren.  As  such   tentative  may, 

perhaps,  be  considered  the  motion  made  by  Danton  in  tlie 
spring  of  1793  for  the  abolition  of  imprisonment  for  debt, 
which  was  carried.  On  that  occasion  the  royalist  Peltier 
sneered  :  "  He  [Danton]  liberated  those  detained  for  debts  ; 
then  he  made  debts  (  ! ),  then  he  was  a  profligate  (  !  ! )" 
Good  logic,  is  it  not?  And  this  is  really  the  way  most  of 
the  charges  against  him  are  supported. 

But  more  important  is  what  they  did  for  \\\t\x  paupers. 

The  English  plutocrats  have  at  least  felt  that  society  owes 
subsistence  to  the  indigent,  hence  their  poor-laws ;  but  it 
should  also  be  noted,  that  as  soon  as  they  had  grasped 
supreme  power,  by  the  Ivcfv^rm  Act  of  1832,  they  showed 


158  FRATERXITY  OF  THE  JACOniXS.        [June, 

their  contempt  for  the  poor  by  imposing  on  them  most 
degrading  conditions  for  being  admitted  to  reUef.  But  the 
French  boui-geoisic  have  done  nothing,  absohitely  nothing. 
True,  in  France  they  have  what  they  call  "public  assist- 
ance." But  do  not  suppose  that  means  relief  by  the  State. 
No,  it  means  that  certain  of  the  most  populous  communes 
are  empowered  to  levy  rates  for  the  support  of  the  poor ; 
however,  the  amount  in  all  France  is  not  more  than  a  two 
hundred  and  fiftieth  part  of  what  the  British  expend  ;  and  in 
Paris  the  average  relief  to  each  person  yearly  is  the  pittance 
of  nineteen  francs,  or  three  dollars  and  eighty  cents. 

The  Jacobin  Convention  did  what  follows :  — 

On  June  23,  1 793,  they  passed,  as  we  saw,  their  consti- 
tution, which,  among  other  things,  provided,  — 

"Art.  21.  Public  assistance  is  a  sacred  debt.  Society 
owes  subsistence  to  its  unfortunate  citizens,  either  by  pro- 
curing them  labor  or  by  insuring  subsistence  to  those  who 
are  unable  to  labor." 

They  did  not  wait  long  with  the  practical  application. 
Five  days  afterwards  a  law  was  passed  organizing  the  assist- 
ance that  should  be  given  annually  to  children,  old  persons, 
widows,  and  paupers. 

The  following  are  some  extracts  of  this,  the  most  humane 
Act,  dating  from  the  French  Revolution,  of  June  28,  1793. 

"  Article  L  Parents  who  have  no  resources  but  their 
labor,  are  entitled  to  assistance  from  the  Slate  whenever  their 
wages  do  not  suffice  for  existence. 

"  Art.  III.  Those  living  by  their  labor,  wlio  already  have 
two  children,  can  claim  support  from  the  State  for  the  third 
child  that  may  be  born. 

"  Art.  IV.  Those  who  already  have  three  infant  children, 
who  likewise  live  exclusively  by  their  labor,  and  who  do  not 
pay  rates  exceeding  five  days'  labor,  can  claim  a  like  su]i]:)ort 
for  the  fourth  child. 


1793]  A   POOR-LAW.  159 

"Art.  V.  Likewise  lliosc  not  living  l)y  the  i)ro(luct  of  their 
labor,  who  pay  a  rate  above  the  value  of  five  days'  labor,  but 
not  exceeding  ten  days'  labor,  and  already  have  four  chil- 
dren, can  claim  support  for  the  fifth  child  that  may  be  born. 

"Art.  VI,  The  support  shall  commence  for  all  as  soon 
as  their  wives  have  reached  the  sixth  month  of  pregnancy. 

"Art.  VII.  The  parents  who  already  are  in  receipt  of 
support  from  the  nation,  shall  be  entitled  to  receive  the  same 
support  for  each  child  that  may  be  born  after  the  third,  the 
fourth,  and  the  fifth. 

"Art.  XL  Children  who  are  supported  on  the  labor  of 
their  father  exclusively,  shall  all  be  maintained  by  the  nation, 
if  the  father  dies  or  becomes  incapacitated,  until  they  can 
earn  their  own  living. 

"  Art.  XII.  In  case  of  the  death  of  the  husband,  the 
widow,  the  head  of  a  family,  who  cannot  by  her  labor  sup- 
port it,  shall  equally  have  the  right  to  maintenance  from  the 
nation." 

The  subsequent  articles  lay  down,  that  the  support  may 
amount,  every  year,  to  eighty  francs  (sixteen  dollars)  for 
each  child,  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  francs  (twenty-four 
dollars),  in  addition,  for  the  mother,  and  this  pension  shall 
commence  with  the  birth,  and  continue  to  the  age  of  twelve 
years  ;  that  children  twelve  years  of  age  who  show  them- 
selves fit  for  a  trade,  shall  be  apprenticed  at  the  cost  of 
the  nation,  so  that  the  expenses  do  not  exceed  a  hundred 
francs  (twenty  dollars)  annually;  and  that  the  others  who 
may  prefer  to  devote  themselves  to  agriculture,  shall  receive 
a  donation  of  two  hundred  francs  (forty  dollars).  Moreover, 
the  mother  was  to  receive  eighteen  francs  (three  dollars  and 
sixty  cents)  to  defray  the  expenses  of  her  confinement, 
and  twelve  francs  (two  dollars  and  forty  cents)  in  addition 
for  baby-linen. 

The  same  support  was  to  be  given  to   unmarried  women 


l6o  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.         [June, 

becoming  mothers,  who,  moreover,  were  entitled,  at  any 
period  of  tlieir  pregnancy,  to  enter  special  lying-in  hospi- 
tals, maintained  by  the  nation. 

Indigent  old  persons  should  be  supported  at  their  homes 
or  in  special  houses  of  refuge,  as  they  might  choose,  from 
the  time  of  being  incapacitated  by  old  age  from  earning 
their  living,  and  in  proportion  to  their  incapacity.  The  max- 
imum of  their  annual  pension  was  fixed  at  a  hundred  and 
twenty  francs  (twenty-four  dollars). 

Committees,  selected  by  the  citizens  for  two  years,  and 
renewed  by  halves  each  year,  were  to  carry  out  these  pro- 
visions. 

The  same  law  provided  for  the  organization  of  a  medical 
service  and  dispensaries  of  medicines,  so  that  all  needy  per- 
sons were  entided,  over  and  above  their  pensions,  to  medical 
care  and  medicines. 

Curiously  enough,  this  Act  has  never  been  repealed,  and  is 
thus,  even  now,  the  law  of  France,  but,  of  course,  a  dead 
letter  ever  since  the  fall  of  the  Jacobins.  Practical  propo- 
sals, indeed,  have  been  made  in  our  days  for  the  raising  of 
sufficient  means  to  carry  out  the  law,  by  M.  Godin  of  Guise, 
but,  of  course,  ignored. 

Again,  here  is  a  splendid  idea  Danton  had  for  the  benefit 
of  maimed  soldiers  :  — 

"  Without  doubt,  tlie  moment  is  not  far  away  when  not  a 
single  poor  person  will  be  found  in  the  whole  territory  of  the 
republic.  But  a?  it  is  by  enjoyment  that  man  is  attached  to 
his  country,  I  believe  it  would  be  well  to  make,  without  delay, 
an  attempt  to  carry  out  your  great  ideas.  Representatives, 
there  are  already  many  citizens  among  us  who  have  been 
mutilated  in  our  defence ;  would  it  not  be  well  to  grant 
land  to  them  in  the  suburbs  of  Paris,  and  give  them  beasts, 
and  thus  start,  under  the  very  eyes  of  the  Convention,  a 
colony  of  patriots  who    have    suffered    for  the  fadicrland  ? 


1793.)  DOWN  WITH  SPECULATORS !  l6l 

Then  every  soldier  of  the  republic  will  say  to  liimself,  '  If  I 
am  mutilated,  if  I  lose  a  limb  in  defending  the  rights  of  my 
people,  I  know  what  I  can  expect.  There  are  already  sev- 
eral of  my  brethren  who  are  rewarded  for  the  service  they 
have  rendered  ;  I  shall  add  to  their  number,  and  bless  un- 
ceasingly the  founders  of  the  republic'  I  demand  that  the 
Committee  of  Public  Welfare  work  out  this  idea,  so  that  we 
may  soon  have  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  those  of  our  breth- 
ren who  have  earned  well  of  the  country  in  defending  her, 
eat  together  under  our  eyes,  at  the  common  patriotic  table." 

Danton  delighted  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  feasting  with 
his  family  in  public  with  his  fellow-citizens.  This  was  the 
period  when  long  tables  were  placed  in  the  streets,  where 
the  patriots  took  their  prepared  food  and  ate  it  in  common. 
Curious  folks,  these  Frenchmen  !  This  proposition 

was  referred  to  the  committee,  and  bore  some  good  fruit, 
at  any  rate,  as  we  shall  see. 

Lastly,  I  just  mention,  in  this  connection,  a  measure  to 
which  I  shall  return  in  another  place,  which,  on  its  face,  is 
for  the  relief  of  the  poor ;  I  mean  the  celebrated  Lmv  of 
Forty  Sous,  proposed  by  Danton  Sept.  6,  1793,  and  adopted 
as  soon  as  proposed.  It  reads  as  follows  :  "■  Be  it  decreed, 
that  the  sections  of  Paris  shall  for  the  future  assemble  in 
regular  sessions,  every  Sunday  and  Thursday,  and  that  every 
citizen  attending  the  same  shall,  on  demand,  be  i)aid  forty 
sous  (forty  cents)  for  each  and  every  session." 

Now  the  Jacobin  Convention  comes,  and  strikes  a  powerful 
blow  at  that  wet-nurse  of  the  plutocratic  classes.  Speculation. 

On  the  27th  of  June,  1793,  a  decree  orders  the  closing  of 
the  Exchange.  Let  me  here  add,  as  a  companion 

picture,  and  as  a  curious  sign  of  the  rigorous  manners  of 
these  heroic  times,  so  different  from  the  present,  that  shortly 
afterwards  the  Cuininittee  of  Public  Welfare  is  charged  with 


1 62  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.        LAug., 

removing  all  notoriously  lewd  women  out  of  France,  because 
"  the  republic  needs  vigorous  bodies  and  Spartan  souls." 

Again,  on  Aug.  24,  Cambon  says  from  the  'I'ribune, 
"  There  is  at  this  moment  a  struggle  for  life  or  death  be- 
tween money-changers  and  the  republic.  •  It  is  necessary 
to  destroy  these  destroyers  of  public  credit  if  we  wish  to 
establish  the  reign  of  liberty  ,  "  and  the  Convention  decrees, 
"  All  associations  whose  capital  stock  is  based  on  shares  to 
bearers,  on  negotiable  instruments  or  titles,  transferable  at 
will,  are  hereby  suppressed." 

As  long  as  the  closing  of  the  Exchange  lasted,  speculations 
were,  as  a  matter  of  course,  still  carried  on  clandestinely  ;  to 
wit,  at  the  Palais  Royal.  But  the  speculators  had  to  be  very 
careful,  for  sometimes  it  happened  tliat  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal  put  its  iron  hand  on  them. 

The  Jacobins  also  tried  to  change  the  course  of  the  sales 
of  the  national  estates.  We  saw  how  the  plutocrats  threw 
themselves,  like  vultures,  on  them,  and  how  the  national 
assemblies,  the  Convention  included,  as  long  as  the  Girondins 
predominated  in  it,  had  loyally  farthered  their  nefarious 
practices.     After  May  31  things  change. 

On  the  loth  of  June  the  Jacobin  Convention  decrees  that 
the  communal  lands  are  to  be  distributed.  All  inhabitants 
of  the  communes,  farmers,  agricultural  laborers,  servants,  etc., 
are  to  have  an  equal  share  ;  the  lands  to  be  divided  as 
much  as  ])0ssible  into  equal  parts,  and  distributed  by  drawing 
lots  in  ali)habetical  order.  And  in  communes  that  have  no 
commons,  the  heads  of  families  shall  be  entitled  to  buy 
five  hundred  francs  worth  of  emigrants'  estates,  the  purchase- 
money  payable  in  the  course  of  twenty  years. 

Yet  the  good  intentions  of  die  Convention  were  frustrated 
by  die  civil  war  and  the  war  against  the  coalition.  The  Revo- 
lutionary (lovernment,  soon  after  established,  had  other  things 
to  attend  t<i  than  distributing  lands,  or,  for  that  matter,  col- 


1793]  DOWN  WITH  SPECULATORS !  163 


lecting  dues,  so  we  may  be  sure  the  jol)bers  who  owed  the 
repubUc  for  their  enormous  purchases  in  previous  years  paid 
less  than  ever.  But,  as  an  offset,  confiscation  after  confiscaticju 
swelled  the  bullc  of  the  national  estates  to  an  enormous  mass. 
Before  the  end  of  the  year  nearly  half  of  the  soil  of  France 
belonged  to  the  State,  and  in  Paris  alone  the  State  owned 
two-thirds  of  all  houses. 

The  plea  by  Danton  in  favor  of  maimed  soldiers,  reported 
a  few  pages  back,  bore  some  good  fruit,  as  stated  :  it  resulted 
in  another  good  decree  to  the  effect  that  a  milliard  (two 
hundred  million  dollars)  toortli  of  tJic  jiational  estates  should 
be  t'esetued  for  and  distributed  amongst  tlie  volunteers,  fight- 
ing on  the  frontiers  for  the  life  of  the  republic.  We  shall  see 
how,  afterwards,  the  plutocrats  succeeded  in  nullifying  both 
the  above  popular  decrees. 

But  these  plutocrats  did  not  get  away  from  the  Jacobins 
without  bleeding  a  little.  At  the  same  time  that  Danton  roused 
the  people  to  the  final  efforts,  in  August,  1 793,  Cambon  caused 
to  be  decreed  a  forced  loan  from  them  to  the  amount  of  a 
milliard  (two  hundred  million  dollars)  and  made  them  pay  it. 

Cambon's  greatest  feat,  however,  one  that  has  withstood 
all  changes,  was  to  merge  all  national  and  royal  debts  (which 
still  attached  many  to  the  royal  cause)  into  one  great  rev- 
olutionary debt,  inscribed  on  le  Grand  Livre  (the  Great 
Ledger)  of  France,  thereby  very  much  simplifying,  and 
especially  greatly  strengthening,  the  credit  of  the  republic. 
All  creditors  were  summoned  to  bring  their  titles  within  a 
given  time  to  the  treasury,  there  to  be  destroyed,  and  the 
claims  instead  inscribed  in  the  Ledger,  or  forever  after  de- 
barred from  recovery.  This  was  a  very  shrewd  measure, 
considering  that  a  public  debt  was  to  remain  an  institution. 
*         *         * 

Children  pre-occupy  the  Jacobin  Convention  even  more 
tlian  men  ;  its  patience  as  to  educational  matters  is  infinite. 


1 64  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOB LYS.     [Aug.  13, 

A  unique  spectacle,  thus  to  see  childhood  protected  by  rude 
hands  that  soon  after  lean  on  the  scaffold  ! 

A  most  remarkable  fact  this  is,  that  there  is  no  improve- 
ment discussed  to-day,  whether  in  regard  to  organization  or 
methods  of  education,  no  subject-matter  of  education  in  a 
democratic  State,  which  was  not  conceived  and  discussed  in 
the  Jacobin  Convention. 

Among  the  papers  of  the  rich  patriot  Lepelletier,  assas- 
sinated in  the  month  of  January,  was  found  a  scheme  for 
national  education,  which,  read  by  Robespierre  before  the 
Convention  July  13,  excited  in  a  high  degree  the  enthusiasm 
of  all.  The  scheme,  which  contained  noble  sentiments, 
and  a  touching  sympathy,  especially  in  a  rich  man,  for  chil- 
dren of  the  poor,  consisted  in  giving  a  common  education 
to  all  the  children  of  the  republic.  Lepelletier  demanded 
that  all  boys  from  their  sixth  to  twelfth  year,  and  all  girls 
from  their  fifth  to  eleventh  year,  should  be  educated  in 
co?nfnou,  at  the  cost  of  the  republic,  and  have  during  that 
period,  by  virtue  of  the  holy  "law  of  equality,"  the  same 
clothes,  food,  instruction,  and  care. 

This  plan  was,  in  principle,  adopted  by  the  Convention 
Aug.  13,  1793,  but  fortunately  accompanied  by  the  follow- 
ing modification,  moved  by  Danton  :  — 

"There  shall  be  created  national  establishments  in  which 
the  children  of  citizens  shall  be  fed,  instructed,  and  lodged 
gratuitously,  and  also  classes  where  the  citizens  who  may 
wish  to  keep  their  children  at  home  can  send  them  for  in- 
struction simply." 

The  speech  which  introduced  this  motion  was,  in  effect,  as 
follows  :  — 

"  Citizens,  —  Next  after  giving  France  liberty,  and  conquer- 
ing her  enemies,  nothing  will  be  more  glorious  than  to  secure 
to  coming  generations  an  education  worthy  of  our  liberty  ; 
this  was  the  great  aim  Lepelletier  had  jjlaced  before  himself. 


EDUCATION.  165 


He  started  irom  the  principle  that  whatever  is  good  fur 
society,  is  and  should  be  a  concern  of  each.  Our  colleague, 
assassinated  by  tyranny,  deserves  well  of  humanity  !  But 
what  is  the  task  the  lc^^islator\\-\'~,  to  perform?  It  is,  to  bring 
principles  and  expediency  into  harmony.  Thus,  the  objection 
has  been  made  to  the  plan,  that  parental  love  opposes  itself 
to  its  execution ;  and  no  doubt  we  must  reckon  with  human 
nature,  even  when  on  a  wrong  tack.  At  the  same  time,  if  we 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  we  ought  not  to  make  education 
compulsory,  we  must  be  very  careful  not  to  deprive  the 
children  of  the  poor  of  education. 

"The  greatest  difficulty  in  our  way  is  undoubtedly  the 
financial  one.  But,  as  I  have  expressed  myself  on  other 
occasions,  we  do  not  really  spend  money  when  we  make 
profitable  investments  of  it  for  the  public  benefit.  Here  I 
add  this  :  that  it  is  eminently  proper  that  the  children  of 
the  people  should  be  educated  out  of  the  superfluities  of 
men  with  scandalous  fortunes.  When  you  sotu  the  vast  field 
of  the  republic,  do  not,  I  implore  you,  count  the  cost  of  the 
seed!  Next  after  bread,  education,  is  the  first  necessary  of 
life  for  the  people.  [Applause.]  I  therefore  submit  this  ques- 
tion to  you  :  Shall  there,  or  shall  there  not,  be  founded,  at 
the  expense  of  the  nation,  establishments  to  which  every 
citizen  can,  if  he  chooses,  send  his  children  for  public,  na- 
tional education  ? 

"  The  instruction,  of  course,  must  be  common.  Education 
at  home  narrows  the  mind  :  a  common  education  broadens 
it.  I  know  that  paternal  affection  has  been  made  into  :\w 
objection  to  it.  Well,  I  myself  am  a  father ;  when  I  on- 
sider  the  relation  which  this  circumstance  places  me  in,  in 
regard  to  the  Commonwealth,  I  assure  you  I  feel  proud  !  My 
son,  I  declare,  does  not  belong  to  me,  l)ut  to  the  republic  ; 
it  is  the  duty  of  the  latter  to  teach  him  his  duties,  that  he 
may  perform  them  well. 


1 66  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.    [Sept.  15, 

"  It  has  also  been  said  that  our  peasants  object  to  being 
deprived  of  the  help  of  their  children.  Well,  then  let  us 
not  compel  them ;  let  us  simply  offer  them  the  opportunity. 
Let  us  establish  classes  where  they,  perhaps,  may  be  induced 
to  send  their  children,  at  all  events  on  Sundays.  Institutions 
will  form  new  manners." 

In  order  to  bring  together  all  the  ideas  of  Danton  on  this 
matter,  I  quote  the  following  from  another  speech,  delivered 
some  months  afterwards,  in  favor  of  compulsory  education : — 

"  It  is  time  to  establish  a  great  principle  which  seems  to 
have  been  neglected ;  this,  to  wit :  that  children  belong  to 
the  republic  rather  than  to  the  parents.  No  one  respects 
nature  more  than  I  do.  But  social  interests  demand  the 
full  allegiance  of  the  affections.  Who  is  there  who  can 
guarantee  that  children  trained  up  in  the  egoism  of  the 
family  will  not  be  dangerous  to  the  republic?  AVe  have 
humored  private  affections  sufficiently  when  we  tell  the  par- 
ents, 'We  will  not  tear  your  children  away  from  you,  but 
neither  shall  you  be  permitted  to  withdraw  them  from  social 
influences.'  It  is  in  the  national  schools  that  our  children 
will  imbibe  national,  public  milk." 

The  above  motion  of  Danton's  creates  a  splendid  system 
of  national  education,  and  for  a  couple  of  years  truly  great 
results  are  olitained.  There  was  manifested  an  unquench- 
able thirst  after  knowledge. 

The  Revolution  made  the  French  a  homogeneous  nation, 
also,  in  language  ;  and  that,  too,  was  the  work  of  the  Jaco- 
bins. AVhen  they  came  to  power,  nearly  half  of  the  tiuenty- 
five  million  Fre7ichmen  did  not  speak  or  understand  the 
French  language,  but  spoke  innumerable  dialects.  The 
Jacobin  Convention  put  a  teacher  of  French  into  every  com- 
mune of  every  frontier  department,  and  every  Frenchman 
did  learn   French. 

i\\\k\  now  is  seen  a  truly  astonishing  spectacle.     On  the 


EDUCATION.  -  167 


very  day  when  it  is  resolved  that  the  Revohitionary  'rrihimal 
shall  divide  itself  into  four  sections,  each  with  its  guillotine, 
to  cut  heads  off  the  quicker,  on  the  15th  of  September,  i  793, 
in  the  midst  of  this  terrible  excitement,  which  one  should 
think  would  leave  room  for  nothing  but  violent  emotions,  a 
deputation  from  the  constituted  authorities  of  Paris  and  her 
suliurbs  appears  at  the  bar  of  the  Convention,  and  strongly 
urges  the  immediate  organization  of  superior  instruction  .' 

And  immediately  the  Convention  enthusiastically  de- 
crees, — 

"  Independent  of  the  primary  schools,  there  shall  be  estab- 
lished in  the  republic  three  progressive  degrees  of  instruction  : 
first,  for  giving  the  (technical)  knowledge  indispensable  to 
artisans  and  working-men ;  secondly,  the  (technical)  knowl- 
edge necessary  to  professions ;  and  thirdly,  furnishing  all 
needed  opportunities  for  pursuing  such  difficult  studies  as 
only  the  more  gifted  minds  are  fit  for." 

And  this  same  Jacobin  Convention  further  had  the  great 
merit,  during  the  period  with  which  we  are  dealing,  of 
initiating,  and  afterwards  of  founding,  the  following  grand 
institutions,  that  survive  to  this  day  :  — 

The  Normal  School ; 

The  Conservatory  of  Arts ; 

The  Museum  of  Natural  History ;  and  last,  but  by  no 
means  least, 

The  Polytechnic  School,  of  all  the  above  institutions  the 
most  eminent. 

The  error  of  the  Jacobins  was,  that  they  thought  that 
education  had  the  power  to  transform,  at  one  stroke,  the 
manners,  opinions,  us^ages,  and  sentiments  of  France,  and  to 
regenerate  society  altogether.  The  i)easants  had  profited 
by  the  abolition  of  the  tithes,  of  taxes,  and  feudal  burdens 
which  the  Revolution  had  secured  for  them  :  nevertheless, 
it  proved  an  easy  thing  for  the  enemies  of  the   Revolution 


1 68  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.   [Autumn, 

to  inspire  them  with  a  great  distrust  for  the  schools  of 
the  repubUc ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  while  many  of  the 
ideas  of  the  Jacobins  have  at  length,  in  our  days,  become 
victorious,  many  others  are  still  in  abeyance. 

The  "enemies  of  the  Revolution"  were,  in  this  case,  of 
course,  the  clergy  ;  in  particular,  the  orthodox  Catholic  clergy, 
—  the  "non-swearers,"  so  called.  Their  hatred  for  the  Con- 
ventionals  was  equal  to  that  the  latter  felt  for  the  former.  In 
order  to  comprehend  this  hatred  it  is  requisite  to  bear  one 
thing  in  mind  :  religion  in  France  did  7iot  mean  Christianity  ; 
it  meant  the  Catholic  Cliiirch  ;  and  this,  again,  meant  noth- 
ing else  than  obedience,  —  obedience  to  the  Pope.  The 
faithful  wanted  genuine  sacraments  ;  to  get  them  they  had 
to  obey  the  priest;  he  had  to  obey  his  bishop,  and  he  again 
the  Pope.  The  Conventionals  were  thus  placed  in  the  un- 
fortunate predicament,  that,  by  attacking  this  obedience  to 
the  Pope,  a  patriotic  object,  they  necessarily  attacked  religion. 
But  in  this  open  struggle  of  theirs  against  the  Pope  they 
could  not  help  failing,  as  Edgar  Quinet  well  observes.  A 
form  of  religion,  and  the  authority  of  the  Catholic  Church 
in  particular,  can  be  overcome  by  force,  but  only  when  there 
is  anotlicr  religion  to  take  its  place.  That  history  has  taught 
us  in  the  Reformation  of  England,  Germany,  and  Scandi- 
navia. Unfortunately  the  French  had  no  other  religion  to 
substitute.  They  were,  therefore,  bound  to  fail.  And  they 
did  fail.  The  Legislative  Body  had  ordered  the  clergy  to 
take  an  oath  by  wliich  they  virtually  would  l)reak  the  bond 
that  united  them  to  the  Pope,  but  three-fourths  of  their 
number  refused,  —  hence  their  name  of  "non-swearers." 

Under  these  circumstances  there  was  only  one  thing  to  do, 
in  order  to  create  that  free  field  for  science  and  philosophy 
that  was  recjuired  :  it  was  the  policy  Danton  strenuously 
advocated,  —  not  to  have  any  tiling  at  all  to  do  widi  the 


1793.]  THE  CODE.  169 

clergy,  the  Cliurch,  and  the  Pope,  separation  of  Church  and 
State,  as  practised  here  in  our  country.  This  poHcy,  indeed, 
was  pursued  a  couple  of  years  afterwards,  until  Bona[)arte 
unfortunately  reversed  it. 

But  meanwhile  a  most  miserable  and  odious  step  is  entered 
upon,  due  to  Hebert.  It  consists  in  closing  the  churches 
by  force,  and  cajoling  as  many  of  the  clergy  as  can  be 
influenced  to  surrender  their  priestly  credentials,  and  resign 
their  places.  A  wave  of  insane  fanaticism  passes  over  France, 
and  the  great  scandal  is  witnessed  of  the  Archbishop  of 
Paris,  and  then  a  number  of  tlie  clergy  from  all  over  the 
country,  appearing  before  the  Convention  to  declare  that 
they  had  till  then  been  contemptible  hypocrites,  and  been 
teaching  the  people  falsehoods.  Fortunately  Danton  also 
here  stems  these  outrages.  He  causes  an  end  to  be  put  to 
further  reception  of  clergy ;  and,  since  Hebert  had  \)xo- 
posed  to  withdraw  their  pensions  from  the  clergymen  who 
do  not  declare  themselves  impostors,  Danton  roundly  de- 
nounces it  as  unjust,  and  succeeds  in  defeating  the  pro- 
posal. 

*         *         * 

On  the  9th  of  August,  1793,  Cambac^res  deposited  his 
Cii'il  Code  on  the  table  of  the  president  of  tlie  Convention. 
That  body  had  given  its  Committee  on  Legislation  three 
months  to  draft  it ;  the  work  was  done  in  one  month.  The 
jurists,  too,  would  show  themselves  heroes. 

Yet  that  is  the  moment  when  all  Frenchmen  are  exhorted 
to  join  the  armies.  Every  one  is  aware  that  the  enemy  has 
passed  the  frontiers.  The  nation  seems  to  have  but  a  mo- 
ment to  live.  Suddenly  it  becomes  calm.  The  place 
that  a  few  minutes  ago  resounded  with  cries,  curses,  prayers, 
and  weeping,  is  so  quiet  you  can  licar  a  pin  drop.  The 
representatives  of  a  nation  that  seems  to  have  but  a  day  to 
live  occupy  themselves  in  voting  laws  that  now  govern  thirty- 


I/O  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.        LSept., 

five  millions  of  men,  —  tables  of  law  truly  descended  among 
thunder  and  lightning  ! 

And  who  is  the  president?  H^rault  de  S^chelles,  Dan- 
ton's  intimate  friend.  Cambac^res  proposes,  the  Conven- 
tion votes,  Hdrault  S^chelles  proclaims,  the  princi^Dles  which 
now  govern  the  social  relations,  the  lives,  the  deaths,  the 
property,  of  Frenchmen  of  to-day.  How,  then,  comes  it 
that  the  Convention  is  now  remembered  only  as  a  destructive 
body?  Because  another  has  shamelessly  plundered 

it  of  its  works. 

That  which  constitutes  a  civil  code,  in  French  jurisprudence 
especially,  are  its  fundamental  principles.  If,  now,  we  com- 
pare the  Civil  Code  of  1793  ^'^^^  '^^'^'^  o^  1803,  we  find  these 
fundamental  principles  have  been  taken  literall}'  over  from 
one  to  the  other.  But  a  nation  has  to  be  effaced  in 

order  to  glorify  a  man. 

The  labor  of  the  Convention  on  its  code  goes  on  bravely, 
quietly,  obstinately.  When  the  factions  are  tired  out  in  strife, 
when  there  is  a  moment's  silence,  the  code  re-appears,  and 
unites  all  intelligences  ;  and  in  this  way  the  Convention  gives 
sixty  sittings  to  it.  It  was  the  work  complementary  to  that  of 
Aug.  4,  —  upbuilding  and  destruction,  both  done  without  fric- 
tion.    I  note  the  following  incidents  of  the  discussions :  — 

Once  the  question  is,  whether  a  functionary  elected  by 
the  people  to  an  office  shall  give  security.  Danton  rises, 
and  says,  — 

"  I  object  to  security  :  it  is  absurd  in  theory.  The  respon- 
sibility that  is  wanted  is  moral,  not  pecuniary.  When  the 
lime  comes,  as  we  all  hope  it  soon  will,  that  the  people  select 
for  public  functions  only  the  talented  and  the  virtuous,  there 
will  be  no  need  for  financial  security."     So  decreed. 

At  another  time  the  question  is  as  to  the  right  of  married 
people  over  their  property.  Danton  asks  in  what  way  the 
Committee  on  Legislation  has  solved  the  problem. 


1793]  -/    GREAT   WROXG.  IJl 

Cambarcens.  "\\'e  have  declared  that  the  husband  shall 
not  be  able  to  dispose  of  the  common  property  without  the 
consent  of  his  wife." 

Danton.     "Good  !     Nothing  is  more  reasonable." 

One  of  the  most  solemn  moments  was  when  slavery  was 
declared  abolished  in  the  French  colonies.  Observe  !  this 
Jacobin  Convention  is  the  first  sovereign  authority  that  abol- 
ishes modern  negro  sla\'er}'.  A  deputation  of  colored  men 
from  the  colonies  is  admitted  to  the  Convention,  and  saluted 
by  the  president  with  a  kiss  on  the  cheek.  Danton  seems 
to  have  had  an  almost  proj^hetic  insight  into  the  future,  for 
he  says,  among  other  things,  on  that  occasion,  — 

"  By  sowing  liberty  in  the  New  World,  we  shall  cause  it  to 
bear  abundant  fruit,  and  shoot  profound  roots  there." 
*         *         * 

And  why  should  such  a  convention,  one  moment  en- 
gaged in  decreeing  a  victory,  another  founding  museums  and 
schools,  not  create  entirely  new  weights  and  measures  of 
capacity  and  distances?  Tliey  ilo  it:  they  establish  the 
metrical  system,  which  at  last,  in  our  days,  after  a  hard 
struggle    has   been   victorious.  From  weights   and 

measures  they  deemed  it  but  a  step  to  a  neio  calendar; 
Frenchmen  of  the  last  century  had  such  a  need,  such  a 
desire,  of  forgetting  their  past,  of  forgetting  every  thing  that 
could  remind  them  of  former  times,  forgetting  even  the  old 
names  of  days,  months,  and  seasons.  Fabre  d'Eglantine,  an 
author,  and  also  friend  of  Danton,  lays  it  before  the  Con- 
vention in  the  fall  of  i  793. 

Did  not  Nature  itself  sanction  the  French  Revolution, 
when  the  republic  was  proclaimed  on  the  2  2d  of  Septeml)er, 
1792,  the  very  day  of  the  autumnal  equinox?  The  great 
French  Republic  is,  therefore,  a  part  of  the  firmament  of 
heaven,  and  ought  to  reckon  its  era  from  that  date,  as  the 
first  day  of  year  i.     Said  era  lasted  twche  years,     ll  was 


172  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.   [Autumn, 

really  the  most  foolish  of  all  their  conceptions, — a  remarkable 
instance  of  their  unbounded  conceit,  to  believe  that  all  other 
nations  would  cheerfully  adopt  a  new  calendar  whereby  to 
regulate  their  most  private  relations,  and  in  the  framing  of 
which  they  yet  had  had  no  share. 

They  even  could  not,  in  spite  of  all  they  might  do,  make 
their  own  peasants  accept  the  new  calendar.  It  is  well  known 
with  what  tenacity  the  common  people  cling  to  habits  that 
have  become  ingrown  with  all  their  daily  tasks.  When  even 
the  decimal  system  of  weights  and  measures,  in  spite  of  its 
evident  superiority,  has  only  in  our  days,  after  eighty  years 
of  struggle,  been  accepted,  how  could  it  be  expected  that 
a  span-new  calendar,  luliicli  abolished  Sunday,  could  be 
acceptable  ?  No  more  Sundays  !  this  was  something  the 
peasants  could  never  understand.  Somewhat  differ- 

ent was  it  with  the  towns.  For  the  Sundays  the  calendar 
had  substituted  dccadics  —  every  tenth  day  —  as  a  holiday. 
In  nearly  all  towns  the  municipal  officers,  with  their  tri- 
color scarfs  of  office,  went  every  decadi  in  procession  to 
the  churches,  where  in  the  place  of  the  altar  a  tree  of  lib- 
erty had  been  planted,  and  held,  often  with  a  great  deal 
of  pomp,  municipal  "  festiv^als,"  which  all  "good  citizens" 
attended.  National  hymns  were  sung,  orators  of  the  locality 
gave  vent  to  their  eloquence,  and  marriages  were  solem- 
nized. 

This  was  a  matter  in  which  the  Convention  greatly  wronged 
the  working-people,  and  simply  in  order  to  gratify  arithmetical 
fancies  and  hatred  of  the  Church.  To  substitute  every  tenth 
day,  instead  of  every  seventh,  as  a  day  of  rest,  to  give  them 
but  three  instead  of  four  holidays  in  the  month,  was  to  rob 
them  of  so  much  of  their  little  leisure.  It  was  indefensible, 
the  more  so  as  they  really  had  a  tender  sympathy  for  the 
working-classes,  in  spite  of  their  middle-class  notions  about 
property  and  the  wage-system.     But  it  was  the  only  instance 


1793]    ''PRIVATE  ENTERPRISE''  ESSENTIAL.     173 

where  the  Jacobin  Convention  knowingly  did  any  thing  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  poor, 

*         *         * 

So  far,  then,  every  thing  the  Jacobin  Convention  Iiad 
done  or  attempted  in  the  way  of  social  reform  —  excciit 
the  childish  freak  of  the  new  calendar  —  had  been  prac- 
tical and  promised  to  be  permanent.  Let  us  repeat  the 
grand  measures  they  had  passed  in  such  a  short  space  of 
time  :  — 

The  maximum. 

Industrial  statistics. 

A  most  generous  poor-law. 

Closing  the  Exchange. 

Land  grants  to  the  poor  and  to  soldiers. 

A  splendid  scheme  of  primary  and  superior  education. 

The  Polytechnic  School. 

Universalization  of  the  French  language. 

The  code,  including  the  abolition  of  slavery. 

The  decimal  system  of  weights  and  measures. 

The  Great  Ledger. 

It  was  all  in  harmony  with  the  programme  stated  as  being 
that  of  Danton  in  the  preceding  chapter,  except  the  maxi- 
mum, into  which  they  had  been  forced  by  circumstances, 
and  in  that  they  had  been  eminently  successful.  They  had 
so  far  not  allowed  metaphysical  speculations  to  influence 
them  in  action ;  they  had  brought  no  translation  at  all  of 
"  God's  mysterious  text "  into  the  public  place,  except  as 
every  day's  necessities  demanded  it. 

In  other  words,  they  had,  led  by  Danton,  practised  the 
policy  now  known  by  the  name  of  "  opportunism,"  —  the 
only  practicable  policy  under  the  circumstances,  since  they 
were  absolutely  ignorant,  and  could  not  help  being  ignorant, 
of  the  society  that  was  to  be  evolved.  We  now  know  that 
was   to   be  a  transition   society.     We  know  that    the    two 


174  FRATERNITY  OF  THE  JACOBINS.   [Autumn, 

principal  things  to  accomplish  were,  to  increase  production 
and  productivity,  and  make  the  tnental preparation,  the  prep- 
aration in  the  minds  of  the  people,  for  the  final  change.  A 
third  thing,  otherwise  resulting  from  the  new  system,  was 
the  teaching  the  vmltitude  new  wants.  In  order  to  increase 
production,  it  was  necessary  that  the  rich  middle  classes 
should  have  supreme  potuer  and  be  enabled  to  practise  free 
competition  and  private  enterprise  to  tiic  utmost  and  //;/- 
fettered.  This  policy  of  opportunism,  so  prudently  entered 
upon,  would  have  accomplished  that ;  for  we  have  seen  that 
the  Jacobins  believed  as  fully  in  these  middle-class  principles 
as  the  plutocrats. 

The  Jacobins  in  that  case  would,  if  they  had  preserved 
their  power,  or  at  least  some  part  of  their  influence,  have 
become  the  good  genius  of  the  French  bourgeoisie.  Not 
alone  would  they  have  prevented,  or  at  least  bridled,  the 
shameful  excesses,  the  criminal  practices,  of  the  plutocrats  : 
more  important  it  is,  that  they  would  have  insisted  on  these 
plutocrats  performing  their  other,  their  incidental  duties  of 
rulersliip.  Since  the  middle  classes  accepted,  courted,  su- 
preme power,  they  should  have  assumed  all  the  responsi- 
bilities, as  the  clergy  and  nobility  had  done  in  the  Middle 
Ages.  They  should  have  looked  after  social  interests,  in- 
stead of  which  they  have  steadily  sacrificed  social  interests 
to  personal,  private  interests.  The  Jacobins  would  have 
secured  to  the  poorer  classes  mea?is  to  satisfy  their  increased 
wants.  They  would  have  "  prevented  gluts,"  and  "  presided 
over  the  apportionment  and  distribution  of  wages  for  work 
done."  They  would  have  softened  the  hatred  of  the  bou7-- 
geoisie  for  the  poorer  classes,  and  thus  prevented  the  hatred 
and  the  terrible  feelings  of  revenge  which  these  classes 
now,  on  their  side,  nourish  for  the  bourgeoisie.  They  would 
have  made  our  present  order  a  smooth  transition  over  into 
the  permanent  social  order  which  approaches,  instead  of  the 


1793]    ''PRIVATE  ENTERPRISE''  ESSENTIAL.    1 75 

violent  revolution  it  now  threatens  to  become.  They  would 
have  retained  France  at  the  head  of  progress. 

But  they  suffered  themselves  to  be  misled  by  Hebert  and 
Robespierre,  became  brutal,  cruel,  or  rather,  cowardly ;  in 
consequence,  the  splendid  foundation  they  had  laid  was  de- 
stroyed. Only  a  little  here  and  there  remained,  as  the  Code, 
retained  under  a  false  name  to  gratify  a  selfish  individual's 
vanity.  Undoubtedly  our  days  have  seen  other  of  their 
works  resurrected,  as  their  educational  system,  because  built 
on  eternal  verities. 

They  became  a  "  faction  ; "  they  insisted  on  a  false  inter- 
pretation of  "God's  text,"  —  insisted  on  translating  it  in  the 
light  of  the  gospel  of  Jean  Jacques,  and  on  twisting  France 
into  the  shape  and  measure  of  ancient  Sparta,  ignoring  her 
whole  previous  history.  But  not  that  alone.  Frenchmen, 
as  they  were,  they  were  impatient  in  applying  this  false  con- 
ception. It  is  an  essential  difference  between  Englishmen 
and  Frenchmen,  that  the  former  are  what  is  called  fond  of 
compromises,  which  really  means  that  they  are  not  in  a  hurry 
in  drawing  ultimate  conclusions ;  the  latter  are  unhealf/iily 
logical,  —  as  already  said,  deem  nothing  gained  till  they  liave 
realized  the  last  conclusion  of  the  syllogism.  It  was  this 
characteristic  that  caused  their  failure  here,  as  it  has  done 
at  other  times.     Their  reign  became  but  a  short  episode. 

On  the  other  hand,  what  a  blunder  to  draw  therefrom  the 
conclusion  that  the  Revolution  failed  !  No,  the  Revolution 
accomplished  the  role  assigned  to  it  in  history.  Our  reform- 
ers who  draw  such  a  false  conclusion,  like  these  other  "  re- 
formers," Godin  of  Guise  and  our  own  Henry  George,  are 
precisely  as  near-sighted  as  the  Jacobins  of  '93,  and  with 
less  excuse  ;  they  all  have  a  wrong  interpretation,  a  false 
translation,  of  "  God's  mysterious  text." 


CHAPTER  VI. 

TERROR. 
Sept.  17,  1793,  to  July  28,  1794. 

"  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  harmonize  ivith  the  narrower  fanatics  oj 
one's  own  faith." 

Hebertism.  —Pity.—  April  5.  —  Danton  Disinterested.  —  Dans  le 
N£ant,  "  Nothingness  '"  (?).  —  The  Incorruptible.  — "  Monsieur  !" 

NOW   the   French   Revolution   suffers  its   great  eclipse, 
commencing  with  that  terrible  code  of  the  Terror,  the 
"  Law  of  the  Suspect." 

Danton  had  intended  the  stern  revolutionary  measures  of 
which  he  was  the  author  to  be  provisional,  temporary ;  they 
were  to  enable  France  to  crush  conspirators,  and  win  vic- 
tories. That  having  been  accomplished,  the  feverish  excite- 
ment, it  was  supposed,  would  cool,  and  the  severity  of  the 
government  would  then  be  more  and  more  relaxed.  First 
of  all,  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  would  be  abolished  ;  and 
by  and  by  the  Committee  of  Public  Welfare  would  give  way  to 
a  regular,  liberal  government,  under  the  constitution,  which 
perhaps  would  be  amended.  Danton  supposed  all  the  time 
he  would  be  able,  by  his  adroitness,  to  control  the  course 
of  affairs,  as  he  had  hitherto  done. 

But  in  this  he  was  now  commencing  to  be  bitterly  disap- 
pointed. Ever  since  his  refusal  to  assume  responsibility 
(though  his  foreign  policy  is  steadily  being  pursued)  he  is 
more  and  more  being  supplanted  by  Robespierre  in  the 
committee,  —  or,  rather,  by  Billaud-Varennes,  as  tlie  power 
behind  llie  throne,  —  and  in  tlie  Commune  by  llebert. 
i;6 


1793-]  HEDERTISM.  1 77 

Ah,  Hubert  was  certainly  the  very  worst  of  all  the  revo- 
lutionary chiefs,  and  a  wholly  pernicious  influence ;  an  influ- 
ence which,  during  the  autumn  months  of  '93,  became 
paramount,  and  overshadowed  even  that  of  Robespierre. 
^Vholly  pernicious  it  was.  Marat  had  been  hysterically, 
insanely  cruel,  but  never  coarse.  Hubert  was  equally  cruel 
and  bloodthirsty  —  from  calculation.  But  there  was  another 
enormity  of  which  he  was  guilty,  —  the  very  blackest  of 
offences,  in  my  opinion,  and  for  which,  alone,  he  almost 
deserved  to  be  guillotined ;  this  :  that,  though  refined  in 
personal  tastes,  and  almost  a  dandy  in  appearance,  he  yet 
descended  so  low  as  to  address  the  people  in  the  coarsest 
and  most  vulgar  language,  having  fallen  into  the  gross  but 
common  error  that  the  work-people  understand  and  like 
such  language  best.  He  accordingly  sprinkled  his  paper, 
the  Pere  Duchesne,  with  the  most  atrocious  obscenities, 
which  were  copied  by  all  the  journals  of  Europe,  in  order 
to  show  to  what  depths  Paris  had  fallen.  And  yet  Hebert 
finds  apologists,  even  in  our  days,  who  fancy  they  clear  his 
reputation  by  showing  that  his  paper  was  not,  from  first  to 
last,  obscene,  but  that  frequently  it  had  very  readable  articles 
and  good  ideas. 

Yet  I  firmly  believe  he  was  perfectly  honest,  and  a  patriot. 
I  believe  that  all  the  Jacobin  chiefs  were  unselfish  men,  and 
that  this  very  quality  nobly  distinguishes  them  from  the  lead- 
ing plutocrats  of  the  period.  But  that  very  fact  should  be 
a  warning  to  us.  Hebert  was  no  rascal,  but  terribly  wrong- 
headed, —  and  wrong-hearted  too,  it  may  be  added.  He 
was  in  that  respect,  and,  indeed,  in  all  others,  a  good  repre- 
sentative of  our  anarchists  of  to-day :  he  was  a  prototype 
of  John  Most. 

He  and  his  party  were,  as  the  Girondins  had  been,  and 
as  our  anarchists  are,  partisans  of  the  war  for  propagantla, 
ardent  partisans.     It  was  their  religion.  Again,  after 


178  TERROR.  [Sept., 

the  fall  of  the  Girondins,  the  Hebertists  perpetuated  their 
"Federalism,"  carried  it  even  farther;  that  is  to  say,  they 
wanted  to  do  away  with  the  supremacy  of  the  State,  and,  in- 
stead of  it,  ''municipalize  "  France  and  all  Europe,  — divide 
them  into  autonomous  communes,  —  the  notion,  it  may  lie 
remembered,  of  Baron  Cloots,  who  in  some  respects  be- 
longed to  Hubert's  party.  Our  modern  anarchists  likewise 
propose,  in  the  teeth  of  cvohitiou,  that  society  be  dissolved, 
in  order  to  allow  the  formation  of  small,  voluntary,  "  autono- 
mous "  groups,  and  apparently  do  not  reflect  that  these 
sovereign  "groups"  will  virtually  be  small  States,  which 
experience  should  have  taught  us  are  far  more  dictatorial 
than  large  ones.  I  think  it,  by  the  way,  very  unfortunate 
that  nearly  all  French  revolutionists,  of  all  schools,  seem  com- 
mitted to  the  sovereignty  of  the  "  Commune,"  as  opposed  to 
that  of  the  nation.  Lastly,  like  tlie  Ciirondins  the 

Hebertists  were  atheists,  and  like  our  anarchists,  fanatic 
atheists.  In  the  approaching  montlis  of  November  and 
December  they  will  make  the  hall  of  the  Convention,  and, 
indeed,  all  Paris  and  France,  into  a  madhouse,  by  their  atlic- 
istic  mummeries  and  processions. 

In  all  this  we  find  many  ideas  common  to  Girondins  and 
Hebertists.  Indeed,  the  difference  was  this  :  that,  while  tlicir 
principles  were  identical,  the  former  wanted  them  carried 
out  for  the  benefit  of  the  plutocrats  exclusively,  and  Hebert 
for  the  benefit  of  the  proletariat,  the  "  Have-nots  ;  "  and,  if 
we  go  to  the  bottom,  I  think  we  shall  find  the  same  really  to 
be  the  difference,  and  the  only  difference,  between  our 
anarchists  and  our  individualists,  between  John  Most  on  the 
one  side,  and  Herbert  Spencer  and  Auberon  Herbert  on 
the  other. 

It  was  the  same  in  regard  to  centralization.  Hd-bert  was 
violently  opposed  to  the  Committee  of  Public  IVr/fare,  and 
opposed  to  it  the  doctrine  of  unrestricted  liberty,  which,  in 


1793]  HEBERTISM.  1 79 

his  mouth,  really  meant  license  :  the  government  of  "  the 
street."  It  was  the  attempt  to  carry  this  doctrine  into 
practice  that  finally  doomed  him.  But  that  which, 

together  with  his  journalist  obscenities,  constituted  his  worst 
crime,  was  what  I  called  his  "  wrong-heartedness  ;  "  was  that 
he,  his  party,  and  journal  constantly  incited  to  murder, 
bloodshed,  and  outrage.  He  was  the  true  father  of  the 
Terror,  though  he  had  a  rival  to  this  distinction  in  Billaud, 
of  the  committee.  In  that  respect  many  of  our  anarchists 
are,  unfortunately,  also  too  like  him.  It  is  not  an  uncom- 
mon thing,  though  it  will  hardly  be  believed,  to  find  in 
French  anarchist  journals  leading  articles  that  openly  preach 
the  doctrine  of  vengeances  particidieres ;  that  is  to  say, 
recommend  their  followers,  at  the  breaking-out  of  the 
revolution,  by  all  means  to  obey  the  worst  promptings  of 
\k\€\x  private  malice  and  revengeful  feelings.  It  is  perfectly 
devilish  ! 

It  was  on  Sept.  1 7  that  was  voted  this  "  Law  of  the 
Suspect,"  the  first-fruit  of  the  spirit  of  Ht§bert.  Billaud- 
Varennes  was  in  the  chair  of  the  Convention  —  as  was  fit. 
This  law  was  terrible,  as  has  been  said,  —  terrible  from  its 
vagueness.  All  who  by  their  conduct,  position,  words,  or 
writings,  had  shown  themselves  "  partisans  of  tyranny  or 
enemies  of  liberty,"  all  who  had  been  refused  certificates  of 
"civism,"  all  functionaries  who  had  been  suspended  by  the 
Convention  or  its  commissioners,  all  former  nobles,  all 
wives,  husbands,  fathers,  mothers,  sons,  daughters,  sisters, 
brothers,  or  agents  of  emigrants  "  who  had  not  uninter- 
ruptedly manifested  attachment  to  the  Revolution,"  were 
declared  "  suspects,"  and  ordered  to  be  arrested.  Lists 
were  immediately  to  be  made  of  such  persons,  and  their  arrest 
to  be  effected  at  once.  No  one  opposed  tlie  passage  of  this 
law ;  there  was  no  discussion,  in  fact.  And  Danton  ?  He 
pursued  his  usual  policy,  that  which  he  had  carried  out  in 


l8o  TERROR.  [Oct., 

regard  to  the  decree  of  Nov.  19  the  i)revious  year:  he 
thought  it  inadvisable  to  oppose  it  in  the  heat  of  passion. 
We  shall  see  he  did  oppose  it  when  he  thought  the  time  had 
come. 

And  now  Hebert  and  Billaud  hurry  their  victims  to  the 
guillotine  :  the  ci-devant  (former)  Queen  ;  then  twenty-one 
Girondin  members  of  the  Convention,  who  spent  the  night 
before  their  execution  in  songs,  drinking,  and  ril^^ldry ; 
then  Philip  Egalit^,  ci-devant  Duke  of  Orleans ;  then  Bailly, 
once  president  of  the  National  Assembly  and  mayor  of 
Paris,  executed  for  the  part  he  took  in  the  killing  on  the 
Champ  de  Mars,  July  17,  1791.  Arrived  at  the  usual  place 
of  execution,  it  was  thought  fit,  on  reflection,  that  he  should 
meet  death  where  he  had  inflicted  it ;  therefore  he  and  the 
guillotine  were  taken  to  the  Champ  de  Mars,  where  with 
genuinely  Parisian  refined  cruelty  he  had  to  wait  in  a  rain- 
storm till  the  instrument  of  death  was  once  more  erected. 
Then  followed  Madame  Roland,  Madame  Elizabeth ;  and 
then  they  came  xw/oiirnees,  as  it  was  styled  (ovensfull). 

It  was  fit  that  the  device  of  the  republic  were  now 
changed  :  it  now  became  "  Liberty,  Equality,  Fraternity,  — 
OR  Death  !  " 

All  these  excesses  grievously  wounded  Danton.  Once,, 
speaking  of  the  H^bertists,  he  said,  stamping  with  his  foot, 
as  if  crushing  an  insect,  "  This  is  what  I  would  do  to  this 
miserable  crew."  Some  time  before  the  Queen's  execution, 
the  representative  of  Austria,  who  still  supposed  him  in- 
fluential, asked  him  to  see  that  no  harm  befell  her,  at  the 
same  time  offering  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  He 
spurned  the  bribe,  but  promised  to  do  what  he  could  for  her, 
adding  that  her  death  had  never  entered  into  his  thouglits. 
He  had  once  publicly  recommended  that  she  be  returned  to 
her  family.  As  for  the  Girondins,  their  fate  almost  broke  his 
heart.     He  told  Carat,  the  tears  flowing  down  his  cheeks, 


1793.]  HEBERTISM.  l8l 

that  he  had  done  all  he  could  to  save  them,  but  in  vain. 
This  failure,  which  must  have  happened  about  the  middle  of 
October,  made  him  even  bodily  ill,  it  is  said. 

Fairness  requires  that  something  additional  be  said  about 
a  man  belonging  to  this  "  crew,"  Chaumette,  the  legal  adviser 
and  representative  of  Paris.  He,  also,  was  a  dogmatic  atheist, 
but  with  many  noble  qualities.  He  had  obtained  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  lash  and  of  corporal  punishment  in  schools ;  the 
suppression  of  lotteries,  that  bane  of  Parisians  at  all  times  ; 
the  closing  of  gambling-houses  ;  and  the  daily  opening  of 
the  libraries  to  the  public.  He  furthermore  procured  for  the 
patients,  who  hitherto  had  been  horribly  crowded  in  the 
hospitals,  a  separate  bed  for  each,  and  that  books  be  sent 
them ;  also  the  assignment  of  a  separate  building  to  lying- 
in  women ;  the  amendment  of  the  atrocious  treatment  of 
criminals ;  and  the  founding  of  an  asylum  for  the  indigent 
and  the  aged.  He  helped  to  found  the  Conservatory  of 
Music,  and  procured  the  suspension  of  the  Vandal  restora- 
tion of  pictures  in  the  Louvre.  Lastly  he  demanded  equality 
of  burial,  and  wished  —  such  a  beautiful  idea  to  a  French- 
man —  that  the  winding  sheet  of  every  citizen  in  his  coffin 
should  be  a  national  flag.  He  was  far  from  being  a  dan- 
gerous man.  Among  anarchists  of  to-day  similar  nol)le  men 
are  found,  such  as  Krapotkin.  Unfortunately,  and  most 
unjustly,  he  became  a  victim  of  Camille's  pen,  and  had  to 

share  Hebert's  fate. 

*         *         * 

Whether  bodily  or  mentally  sick,  Danton  got  leave  of 
absence  from  the  Convention,  and  retired  for  six  weeks, 
with  his  young  wife,  to  his  beloved  birthplace,  Arcis-sur- 
Aube,  and  the  society  of  his  mother  and  stepfather.  Tradi- 
tion has  preserved  some  information  as  to  what  he  did,  how 
he  lived,  and  what  he  said,  then  and  there  ;  and  it  so  hap- 
pens that  Madame  Roland,  in  the  i)rison  of   Saint-Pelagic, 


1 82  TERROR.  [Nov., 

concerns  herself  at  the  same  time  with  Danton.  By  con- 
trasting what  she  thinks  Danton  is  about,  and  what  he  is 
actually  doing,  we  can  discover  how  much  we  ought  to  rely 
on  her  other  slanderous  statements. 

She  writes  in  her  Manoires  :  — 

"  O  Danton  !  it  is  thus  thou  sharpenest  thy  knife  against 
thy  victims.  Strike  !  One  more  will  add  but  little  to  thy 
crimes  ;  but  their  multitude  cannot  fathom  thy  scoundrelism, 
nor  save  thee  from  infamy.  As  cruel  as  jSIarius,  as  frightful 
as  Catiline,  thou  surpassest  them  in  wicked  deeds." 

No ;  poor  Danton  was  not  sharpening  any  knives  against 
Madame  Roland  or  anybody  else.  He  was  going  about 
feeding  his  ducks,  or  planting  with  trees  a  meadow  behind 
his  house,  which  he  wanted  to  convert  into  a  garden.  They 
tell  a  story  of  him  from  these  days  :  — 

One  day  a  laborer  hired  by  him  cut  himself  seriously 
while  at  work.  Every  one  else  ran  about  bewildered,  seek- 
ing assistance  ;  while  Danton  tore  his  shirt  in  pieces,  stemmed 
the  blood,  bandaged  the  wound,  and  tlien  took  the  work- 
man up  in  his  arms  and  carried  him  to  his  house,  where 
he  had  good  care  taken  of  him. 

Another  story,  told  by  his  son,  sets  in  still  better  relief 
the  ravings  of  Madame  Roland  :  — 

Shortly  after  the  31st  of  October,  the  day  of  execution 
of  the  Girondists,  Danton  was  one  day  walking  in  his  gar- 
den, together  with  one  of  his  neighbors,  who  afterwards 
was  mayor  of  Arcis,  when  some  one  approached  them  with 
hurried  steps,  holding  a  paper  in  his  hand. 

"  Good  news  !  "  cried  the  new-comer,  "  good  news  !  " 

''What  is  it?"  asked  Danton. 

"The  Girondists  have  just  lost  tlicir  heads  on  the  scaffold." 

"And  do  you  call  that  good  news?"  exclaimed  Danton, 
while  his  eyes  filled  with  tears. 

"  Well,  were  they  not  factious? " 


1793.]  riTY.  183 

"  Factious  !  Have  we  not  all  been  factious  ?  We  de- 
serve death  as  much  as  they,  and  we  probably  shall  have  to 
travel  the  same  road." 

When  somebody  else  reminded  Danton  of  the  crimes  of 
the  Girondists,  he  answered,  "  It  ought  to  be  held  a  sacred 
principle  that  a  patriot  must  do  wrong  three  times  before 
we  use  him  severely." 

That  was  exactly  the  contrary  to  what  Robespierre 
thought,  and  nothing  can  better  serve  to  distinguish  the 
two  men ;  for  the  latter  said,  that,  let  a  man  have  rendered 
ever  so  great  services  to  the  State,  if  he  once  sinned  against 
"virtue"  he  should  be  "spit  out." 

Otherwise,  the  six  weeks  were  passed  by  Danton  in  the 
company  of  his  fellow-townsmen.  Here  as  elsewhere  he 
was  in  the  highest  degree  social.  He  took  his  meals  with 
open  windows  and  doors,  and  it  is  said  his  neighbors  stood 
in  crowds  in  the  open  windows  to  see  their  great  fellow- 
townsman  eat  and  hear  his  talk. 

He  comes  back  to  Paris  in  November.  He  and  Camille 
Desmoulins,  who  lived  in  the  same  small  street,  and  passed 
nearly  all  their  leisure  time  in  each  other's  homes,  walked 
one  evening  along  the  Seine.  The  setting  sun  rendered  the 
waters  of  the  river  purple.     Suddenly  Danton  stopped. 

"  Look  !  "  and  his  eyes  became  humid,  "  how  it  looks 
like  blood  !  The  Seine  runs  blood  ;  there  has  been  too 
much  spilt.  Go,  take  thy  pen,  demand  ckiiicncy,  and  I 
shall  support  you." 

Camille  did  write.  Tlic  Old  Cordelier  was  the  result, 
and  the  noblest  memento  a  writer  could  well  have. 

First,  numl)er  one  appeared,  then  number  two  ;  they  were 
read.  Besides  Danton,  who  inspired  the  whole  enterprise, 
it  is  said  that  these  two  numbers  were  shown  to  Robespierre 
in  manuscript,  who  approved  them  on  the  whole,  and  made 
a  few  immaterial  corrections. 


1 84  TERROR.  [Dec, 

Then  the  famous  numljcr  tliree  appeared.  It  lashed  the 
system  of  the  Terror  that  obtained,  especially  the  "  Law  of 
the  Suspects,"  under  the  pretence  of  being  a  translation  from 
Tacitus  from  the  period  of  Tiberius. 

The  success  of  this  magnificent  satire  was  enormous. 
People  crowded  round  the  shops  of  the  newsdealers,  and 
the  price  of  each  copy  rose  to  a  dollar  and  more.  Camille, 
really  a  child  in  spirit,  was  childishly  joyous  at  this  success, 
and  going  home,  it  is  said,  took  his  little  son  Horace  on  his 
knees,  and  made  him  jump,  singing,  not  knowing  how 
truthfully  he  prophesied,  "■Edainus  et  bibamus  eras  eniin 
vioriainur "  ("  Let  us  eat  and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we 
die"). 

"  Do  you  really  think,"  he  said  one  day  to  his  friend 
Bruno,  a  future  marshal  of  the  Empire,  who  called  to  lunch 
with  him,  "  that  they  will  attack  me,  me  and  my  Old 
Cordelier,  for  asking  for  a  Committee  of  Clemency  and 
Justice  ?  for  wanting  to  consolidate  the  work  of  our  Revolu- 
tion ?  Why,  I  have  the  whole  of  France  in  my  favor  !  I 
am  read  and  applauded  everywhere." 

Then  number  four  came  out.     In  it  Camille  wrote,  — 

"  Liberty  !  Is  it  nothing  but  an  actress  from  the  opera, 
with  a  red  cap  on?  or  perhaps  the  statue  which  David  pro- 
poses to  erect,  forty-six  feet  high  ?  If  by  '  Liberty  '  you  do 
not  mean,  with  me,  principles,  but  only  a  piece  of  stone, 
surely  there  has  never  been  a  more  stupid  and  costly  idolatry 
than  ours. 

"  No,  my  Liberty  descended  from  heaven ;  is  neither  a 
nymph  from  the  opera,  nor  a  red  cap,  nor  a  dirty  shirt.  It 
is  happiness,  equality,  justice,  the  Declaration  of  Rights  ;  it  is 
our  sublime  constitution.  Do  you  want  me  to  fall  at  the 
feet  of  that  Liberty?  spend  all  ray  blood  for  it?  Then  open 
the  prisons  to  the  tioo  hundred  tJioitsand  citizens  you  call 
suspects,  fur  in  our   Declaration  of   Rights    there   arc  not 


1793.]  PITY.  185 

mentioned  at  all  any  prisons  of  suspicion,  but  only  prisons 
of  arrest.  You  will  exterminate  all  your  enemies  by  the 
guillotine,  but  was  there  ever  a  greater  folly?  Can  you 
make  one  perish  on  the  scaffold  without  making  ten  enemies 
of  his  family  and  friends?" 

This  is  too  strong  for  the  Terrorists;  they  bring  it  up  in 
the  Jacobin  Club,  where  Robespierre  proposes  to  burn  the 
numbers,  when  Camille  blurts  out  his  famous  reply,  "  Tnit 
burning,  Robespierre,  is  not  answering,"  which  makes  the 
latter  very  angry.  In  that  meeting  Danton  speaks  some 
words  to  the  effect  that  they  should  be  careful  how,  in  judg- 
ing Camille,  they  make  a  fatal  blow  against  the  liberty  of  the 

press. 

*         *         * 

On  the  4th  of  March,  1794,  the  H^bertists  proceeded  to 
overt  acts  of  insurrection.  They  had,  in  their  Club  of  the 
Cordeliers,  a  tableau  of  the  Rights  of  Man.  This  they 
covered  with  black  crape ;  "  and,"  said  Hebert,  "  it  shall 
remain  veiled  till  the  '  moderates  '  —  the  Dantonists  —  are 
destroyed."  And  he  went  farther :  he  called  upon  the 
people  of  Paris  to  rise  to  overthrow  the  Revolutionary  Gov- 
ernment, and  establish  his  own  anarchic  system  by  force. 
His  attempt  failed  miserably,  —  only  his  own  section  declared 
itself  willing  to  follow  him,  —  and  in  consequence  he  and  his 
followers  were  arrested  and  brought  before  the  Revolutionary 
Tribunal.  Then  he  had  to  feel  the  weight  of  the  very  law 
he  himself  had  been  the  loudest  in  agitating  for,  —  the 
law  which  allowed  the  Tribunal  to  close  the  defence  after 
the  lapse  of  three  days,  though  Danton,  who  otherwise  lent 
all  his  force  and  influence  to  the  prosecution,  was  willing  to 
grant  him  all  the  latitude  of  defence  he  wished.  Hebert 
and  party  were  executctl  the  24th  of  March,  from  five  to  six 
in  the  afternoon,  as  had  lately  become  the  flishion,  since 
executions  were   now  looked    upon   as  popular  spectacles. 


l86  TERROR.  [March  24, 

The  people  in  the  streets  hooted  and  mocked  him,  and 
applied  to  him  the  coarse  and  cruel  vulgarities  with  which 
he  had  accompanied  his  victims  to  the  scaffold  in  his  paper. 
One  enormity,  however,  was  reserved  for  him  which,  like 
the  one  done  to  Bailly,  I  verily  believe  would  not  be  perpe- 
trated in  any  other  civilized  country  but  France,  and  whicli 
again  shows  the  cruel  disposition  of  Frenchmen.  As  Ht^bcrt 
lay  prostrate  on  the  guillotine,  waiting  for  the  knife,  the 
executioner,  Samson,  —  a  royalist,  by  the  way,  —  positively 
amused  the  crowd  by  playing  with  his  terror ;  that  is  to  say, 
he  allowed,  several  times,  the  knife  to  descend  halfway,  rais- 
ing it  again,  till  he  finally  allowed  it  to  descend  to  do  its 
work ;  and  the  crowd  enjoyed  the  sport  hugely. 

The  fact  is,  that  Hebert's  execution  gave  not  alone  great 
satisfaction  to  the  government  and  the  Dantonists,  wliom  it 
rid  of  a  most  dangerous  fanatic,  but  also  unbounded  joy  to 
the  royalists  and  counter-revolutionists.  For  it  cannot  be 
denied  that  it  was  the-turning  point  in  this  tragical  part  of  the 
Revolution.  Hubert  was  the  first  patriot  condemned  by  the 
Tribunal.  Marat  had,  eleven  months  before,  been  taken  be- 
fore it,  on  the  accusation  of  the  Girondists,  but  he  had  been 
triumphantly  acquitted  and  carried  away  on  the  shoulders  of 
the  people  ;  but  now  a  patriot  was  condemned,  and  destined 
to  prei)are  the  way  for  so  many  others.  Yet,  even  if  Danton 
was  aware  of  it,  he  could  have  done  nothing  else  ;  it  is  just 
the  pity  of  every  new  movement  that  it  is  loaded  with  fa- 
natics who  often  destroy  it  by  carrying  things  to  extremes. 

It  is  now  that  Danton  delivers  his  last  address  in  the  Con- 
vention, Pache,  the  mayor  of  Paris,  came,  March 
19,  before  that  body,  and  protested  in  the  name  of  tlie  Com- 
mune its  devotedness  to  the  national  representatives.  Rulil, 
the  president,  expressed  his  gratification,  but  at  the  same 
time  reproached  it  with  being  somewhat  tardy.  Then 
Danton  rose  and  said,  — 


1794]  APRIL  FIFTH.  1 8/ 

"The  national  representative  body  should  always  main- 
tain a  worthy  attitude.  It  ought  not  to  mark  a  whole  col- 
lective body  with  its  displeasure  because  some  of  them  have 
been  guilty  men.  The  General  Council  of  the  Commune 
has  come  to  declare  its  loyalty.  The  president  has  showed 
himself  dignified  ;  his  answer  is  worthy  the  majesty  of  the 
people.  However,  may  we  not  have  reason  to  fear  thai 
malecontents  will  misinterpret  his  expressions?  In  the  name 
of  our  country,  I  say,  let  us  not  give  the  least  cause  for 
misunderstandings.  If  ever,  when  we  are  victors  (and  victory 
is  already  an  assured  thing),  if  ever,  I  say,  private  passions 
shall  prevail  over  love  of  country,  if  ever  they  shall  create 
a  new  abyss  for  liberty,  /  shall  be  one  of  the  first  to  precipi- 
tate myself  into  it.  The  president  has  made  a  response  full 
of  severe  justice,  but  it  may  be  misinterpreted.  Let  us 
spare  the  Commune  the  sorrow  of  ha\ing  been  censured  with 
bitterness." 

The  President.  "  I  wish  to  reply  from  the  Tribune. 
Come,  my  dear  colleague,  and  occupy  the  chair  meanwhile." 

Danton.  "  No,  president,  speak  from  your  seat ;  you  oc- 
cupy it  worthily.  [Applause.]  If  my  remarks  have  sounded 
harshly,  pardon  them.  See  in  me  a  brother  who  merely 
has  frankly  stated  his  opinion."  The  report  adds, 

"  Ruhl  steps  down  from  his  seat,  and  throws  himself  into 
Danton 's  arms.  This  scene  creates  the  liveliest  enthusiasm 
in  the  assembly." 

This  was  Danton's  last  speech.  During  the  arrest  and 
trial  of  the  H^bertists  his  f.ite  was,  indeed,  being  sealed  ;  for 
at  that  time  two  of  Danton's  closest  friends,  and  both  notaljle 
members  of  the  Convention,  were  arrested.  They  were 
Herault  de  Sechelles,  who  drafted  the  Jacobin  Constitution, 
falsely  charged  with  giving  asylum  to  an  emigrant,  and  re- 
vealing the  secrets  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Welfair,  of 
which  he  was  a  member  \  and  Fabrc  d' Eglantine,  the  noted 


1 88  TERROR.  1  March, 

dramatic  author  who  had  invented  tlie  new  calendar,  lately 
adopted.  The  charge  against  the  latter  was  infamously  out- 
rageous, and  is  particularly  damning  to  Robespierre,  who 
bears  the  responsibility  for  the  murders  that  now  follow.  I'he 
charge  was,  that  he  had  forged  a  decree  of  the  Convention  in 
the  interest  of  stock-jobbers  and  speculators  ;  while  the  fact 
was,  that,  so  far  from  having  forged  it  or  any  thing  else,  he 
had  been  untiring,  by  his  motions  in  the  Convention,  in  ////- 
masking  the  forgers,  which  flict  was  well  known  to  Robe- 
spierre, who  had  repeatedly  seconded  and  spoken  in  favor  of 
these  very  motions. 

I  have  said  that  Robespierre  must  bear  the  responsibility 
of  Danton's  execution,  and  that  is  simply  because  it  could 
not  have  been  effected  without  his  sanction  and  even  active 
support.  If  Robespierre  had  said,  "  No,"  Danton  would  have 
lived.  Robespierre,  moreover,  was  the  person  that  princi- 
pally benefited  by  the  fall  of  his  friend.  But  when  histo- 
rians, and  especially  those  Positivists  who  have  done  so 
much  to  rehabilitate  Danton,  insist  that  his  execution  was 
Robespierre's  work  from  beginning  to  end,  that  Robespierre 
had  first  conceived  the  idea  and  initiated  it,  I  deny  it.  It 
must  be  noted  that  Robespierre  had,  at  least  a  dozen  times 
after  Danton's  popularity  began  to  wane,  while  his  own  was 
in  the  ascendant,  taken  Danton's  part,  and  taken  it  warmly, 
even  furiously.  To  have  done  so  when  at  the  same  time 
he  meditated  his  death,  would  stamp  Robespierre  as  a 
most  scoundrelly  hypocrite,  which  there  is  no  evidence  he 
was.  Further,  Robespierre  had  no  reason  to  wish  Danton's 
removal ;  the  latter  being,  as  we  have  seen,  without  any 
ambition  at  all.  Danton  was  well  aware  of  this,  and  used  to 
say,  "All  will  go  well  as  long  as  people  say  '  Robespierre  and 
Danton,'  but  I  shall  be  in  danger  if  they  ever  commence  to 
say  '  Danton  and  Robespierre.'  '•  And  at  no  time  did  Danton 
charge  Robespierre  with  being  the  author  of  his  misfortune. 


1794. J  APRIL  FIFTH.  1 89 

He  well  enough  knew  that  his  most  dangerous  enemy  was 
Billaiid-Varenncs.  Yes,  it  was  15illaud  who  pursued  Dan- 
ton  with  an  implacable  hostility,  and  did  not  tire,  till  at  last 
he  had  persuaded  Robespierre  to  give  his  consent  to  Dar.- 
ton's  loss  ;  and  he  lived  long  enough  to  heartily  repent  of 
his  act.  Billaud  was  three  years  older  than  Danton ;  a 
lawyer,  like  him  ;  had  been  second  only  to  Marat  in  egging 
on  to  the  September  massacres ;  entered  the  Convention  as 
a  member  from  Paris,  and  became  immediately  known 
as  one  of  the  chiefs  of  the  Mountain.  He  entered  the  Com- 
mittee of  Public  Welfare  on  the  6th  of  September,  and  took 
part  in  all  its  future  patriotic  labors,  but  also,  and  that  as  a 
leader,  in  all  its  terrorism.  For  while  he  undoubtedly  was 
a  patriot,  and,  as  the  future  showed,  a  man  of  inflexible  recti- 
tude, moreover,  a  man  of  untiring  industry  when  working 
under  leadership,  he  was  also  a  bloody,  implacable  Terrorist, 
That  determined  his  hostile  attitude  to  Danton.  It  was  on 
principle  that  he  pursued  Danton  :  it  was  the  hatred  of  the 
Terrorist  to  the  man  of  pity.  And  that  hatred  dated  already 
from  the  September  massacres.  It  is  Courtois  de  I'Aube 
who,  in  his  notes  on  the  Revolution,  has  given  us  this 
insight :  "  It  will,  no  doubt,  astonish  a  great  many  people 
when  I  say  that  one  of  the  sources  of  the  hatred  they 
nourished  towards  Danton  was  simply  that  he  had  not,  in 
the  days  of  2d  and  3d  of  September,  played  the  part  they 
wished  him  to  play,  and  that  from  this  moment  he  was 
looked  upon  as  a  man  without  revolutionary  character. 
Many  patriots  may  remember  that  these  complaints  came 
often  from  the  mouth  of  Billaud."  It  is  because  Danton 
had  shown  himself  heretofore  a  man  of  pity,  and  because  he 
is  now  the  chief  of  the  party  of  clemency,  that  he  perishes. 
At  the  time  of  the  arrest  of  Fabre  d'Eglantine,  Billaud 
let  these  words  of  menace  esca])e  him  :  "  Damnation  to  him 
who  has  sat  at  the  side  of  Fabre  [to  wit,  Danton],  and  who 


1 90  TERROR.  [March, 

is  yet  his  dupe."  A  little  later,  in  full  committee,  he  pro- 
poses, without  any  circumlocution,  tlie  arrest  of  Danton. 
But  Robespierre  is  not  yet  won  over :  he  is  still  almost 
scandalized ;  he  rises,  and  cries  out  in  a  fury  to  Billaud, 
"Wilt  thou  then  destroy  all  the  best  patriots?  "  That  there 
may  be  no  doubt  of  Billaud's  being  the  responsible  author, 
here  are  words  he  uttered  after  the  fall  of  Robespierre  :  "  If 
the  death  of  Danton  be  a  crime,  I  accuse  myself  of  it,  for  I 
was  the  first  to  denounce  Danton.  I  have  said,  '  If  Danton 
continues  to  live,  liberty  will  be  lost ; '  "  and  "  Danton  is  the 
only  representative  of  the  people  whose  punishment  I  have 
caused,  because  he  seemed  to  me  the  most  dangerous  con- 
spirator." Let  him,  then,  have  the  honor  of  his  fateful 
work. 

But,  undoubtedly,  after  Robespierre  had  allowed  himself 
to  be  persuaded  to  kill  off  Danton,  he  hunted  him  to  his 
death  in  the  most  odious  manner.  He  not  only  dished  up 
the  stale  charges  of  their  common  enemies,  the  Girondists, 
as  to  his  honesty,  but  especially  made  it  a  crime  in  Danton 
that  he  was  a  whole  man,  delighting  in  the  enjoyments  of 
life,  and  liking  to  satirize  his  own  Puritanic  notions.  One 
of  the  most  remarkable  of  his  accusations  is  this  :  that  Dan- 
ton once  clasped  the  sister  of  Robespierre's  bride,  with 
whom  he  had  years  of  acquaintance,  ro'and  her  waist,  saying, 
"There  is  one  thing  that  will  cure  you,  my  little  friend,  and 
that  is,  to  get  a  husband."  At  this  time  it  is  said 

that  Danton  had  an  interview  with  Robespierre,  in  which  he 
tried  to  get  the  latter  away  from  the  influence  of  Billaud. 
Toward  the  conclusion  Danton  said  something  to  the  effect 
that  it  was  well  enough  to  be  terrible  towards  royalists  and 
conspirators,  but  that  it  was  even  more  important  to  dis- 
tinguish between  the  innocent  and  the  guilty.  "  And  dost 
thou  say  that  one  innocent  has  perished?"  flared  up  Robe- 
spierre.    "  What !   not  one  innocent  ?      \\'hat  saycst  thou, 


I794-]  APRIL  FIFTH.  191 

Paris?  "  addressing  the  l)ailifr  of  the  Revohitiunary  Tribunal, 
wlio  was  present. 

From  this  time,  and  to  his  last  moment,  many  of  Dan- 
ton's  remarks  that  have  been  preserved  are  most  touching, 
and  all  of  them,  with  but  very  few  exceptions,  are  in  a  noble 
vein ;  while  Robespierre's  conduct  and  remarks  become 
inexpressibly  mean.  ^Vhen  Danton's  friends  warned  him 
of  his  danger,  and  implored  him  to  act,  he  said,  "  No ;  I 
would  rather  be  guillotined  than  guillotine  others."  When 
they  implored  him  to  flee  the  country,  he  made  a  reply 
which  Frenchmen  have  not  forgotten  to  this  day,  even  if 
forgetting  its  author :  '•'  Do  we,  then,  carry  our  country  on 
the  bottom  of  our  shoe-soles?  " 

In  the  still  hour  of  the  night  of  March  30,  1794,  the 
three  committees,  of  Public  Welfare,  of  Public  Security,  and 
on  Legislation,  met  together,  when,  on  the  motion  of  Saint- 
Just,  Robespierre's  henchman,  the  order  for  the  arrest  of 
Danton,  Camille  Desmoulins,  and  Lacroix:  was  signed. 
Carnot,  the  great  war  minister,  remarked,  "  These  are 
only  suspicions  ;  you  have  not  a  single  proof,"  but  signed 
anyway.  Robert  Lindet,  a  Dantonist,  and  Ruhl,  an  Alsa- 
tian, refused  to  sign ;  the  former  saying,  "  I  am  here  to  work 
for  my  country,  not  to  kill  off  patriots."  In  the  early  morn- 
ing of  March  31  the  three  Conventional  were  arrested  in 
their  homes,  and  taken  to  Luxembourg  Palace. 

On  entering  the  prison  the  first  words  of  Danton  were, 
"  At  length  I  perceive  that  in  revolutions  the  supreme 
power  ultimately  rests  with  the  most  abandoned."  Still,  if 
Danton  had  not  thrown  off  responsibility,  this  would  prob- 
ably not  have  been  so  here.  At  all  events,  this  is 
what  must  be  prevented  for  the  future,  and  which  can  be 
prevented  by  men  of  good  tuill  organizing  themselves  for 
effecting  the  changes  that  clearly  must  be  made. 

One  of  the  first  prisoners  he  met  there  was  another  Con^ 


192  TERROR.  [March  31, 

vcntional,  the  American  Thomas  Paine,  to  wliom  lie  gave 
his  hand,  saying,  in  Enghsh,  "  What  you  have  done  for  the 
hai^piness  and  hberty  of  your  country,  I  have  in  vain  at- 
tempted to  do  for  mine.  I  have  been  less  fortunate,  but  not 
more  guilty."  They  were  put  into  the  room  that  the 
Girondins  had  occupied.  There  he  said  with  energy,  "  It 
was  just  a  year  ago  that  I  caused  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal 
to  be  instituted.  I  beg  pardon  for  it  of  God  and  man.  My 
object  was  to  prevent  new  September  massacres,  and  not  to 
let  loose  a  new  scourge  upon  mankind."  Then,  giving  v\ay 
to  his  contempt  for  his  colleagues  who  were  murdering 
him,  he  exclaimed,  "These  brother  Cains  know  nothing 
about  government.  I  leave  every  thing  in  a  frightful  dis- 
order." For  a  moment  he  showed  regret  at  having  taken 
part  in  the  Revolution,  saying  it  was  much  better  to  be  a 
poor  fisherman  than  to  govern  men. 

The  next  day  the  Convention  is  informed  of  the  arrest, 
effected  over  night,  and  its  formal  assent  asked  to  taking  the 
accused  before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal.  The  C^^nvention 
is  thunderstruck.  Legendre,  Danton's  faithful  lieutenant 
on  Aug.  10,  makes  the  motion  that  he  be  heard  at  the  bar 
of  the  Convention  in  his  own  defence.  If  that  had  been 
granted,  Danton's  voice  and  his  good  cause  undoubtedly 
would  have  righted  matters.  But  a  mere  sneer  of  Robe- 
spierre negatives  the  motion,  showing  at  once  the  great 
ascendency  he  had  now  acquired,  and  liis  contemptible 
meanness.  "  Legendre,"  he  said,  "  has  talked  of  Danton 
because  he  thinks  a  privilege  attaches  to  that  name.  \Ve 
want  to  know  of  no  privileges  at  all ;  tve  want  no  idols. 
It  is  a  bi-each  of  equality  to  render  more  favor  to  one  citizen 
than  to  another." 

The  "  trial,"  so  called,  is  not  worth  discussing,  for  it  was 
no  trial  at  all.  It  is  worth  noting,  to  his  honor,  that  Paris, 
the  bailiff  of  the  Tribunal,  with  splendid  courage  came  for- 


1794.]  APRIL  FIFTH.  1 93 


ward  and  embraced  the  accused,  his  friends,  on  tlieir  entrance. 
The  accusation  against  them,  tluit  they  luui  conspired  to 
restore  the  monarchy,  was,  of  course,  arrant  nonsense.  They 
were  convicted  without  a  particle  of  evidence  against  them  ; 
without  one  of  the  score  of  witnesses  in  their  favor,  that  they 
called  for,  being  permitted  to  appear ;  with  their  mouths  bru- 
tally shut  by  a  special  law  passed  for  the  occasion ;  and  they 
were  condemned  to  death,  all  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  is 
at  this  moment  that  Camille,  in  impotent  rage  at  the  shame- 
less farce,  tears  some  documents  to  pieces  and  throws  them 
at  the  heads  of  the  jurors  ;  and  these  are  the  "  bullets  of 
bread  "  which  Carlyle,  in  his  history,  makes  the  accused,  in 
their  "  levity,"  throw  in  the  faces  of  their  judges  ! 

At  the  moment  of  hearing  his  sentence  Danton  said  these 
memorable  words  :  "  I  feel  a  consolation  in  believing  that 
the  man  who  is  to  die  as  chief  of  the  faction  of  the  merciful, 
will  find  grace  in  the  eyes  of  posterity."  How  harsli  these 
words  should  grate  in  the  ears  of  "  posterity  "  ! 

Tlie  next  afternoon,  at  the  usual  hour,  the  fatal  cart,  with 
Danton  and  his  friends,  passed  the  usual  route.  But  this 
time  there  was  no  jeering.  There  was  perfect  stillness 
everywhere.  The  people  felt  that  their  friends  were  passing 
by  them  ;  but  how  it  all  came  about,  they  did  not  seem  to 
understand  at  all.  The  cart  went  past  the  house  where 
Robespierre  lived  ;  all  the  shutters  were  closely  drawn.  At 
that  moment  Danton  looked  up  at  the  windows,  and  broke 
out,  "  Imbecile  !  He  kills  me,  and  I  am  the  only  man  who 
could  save  him."  There  is  certainly  nothing  that  sliows 
Robespierre's  imbecility  so  much  as  not  to  be  able  to  see 
that  Hebert's  execution  formed  a  terrible  crisis  ;  that,  while 
it  was  imperatively  necessary  to  get  rid  of  him,  it  was  more 
than  ever  necessary  to  protect  the  rest  of  the  patriots. 

Then  the  heads  of  the  Dantonists  commence  to  drop  in  the 
fateful  basket.     At  length  steps  forth   Herault  de  Sechelles, 


194  TERROR.  [Aprils, 

the  handsome  nobleman  wlio  liad  been  such  a  true  friend 
of  the  people,  with  a  rose  in  his  hand.  He  wants  to  em- 
brace Danton,  but  is  prevented  by  the  executioner.  "  You 
stupid  !  "  says  Danton,  "  you  cannot  prevent  our  heads  from 
kissing  each  other  in  yonder  basket."  A  curious  coin- 

cidence characterizes  the  period  perfectly.  There  was  then 
played  in  the  theatres  of  Paris  a  piece  which  represented  the 
y?/^  of  Aug.  10,  1793.  The  Convention  was  shown  assem- 
bled on  the  Place  de  Bastille,  with  its  president,  none  other 
than  Herault  de  S^chelles,  drinking  a  toast  in  water  to 
Nature.  At  the  very  hour  when  the  actor  who  represented 
Herault  drank  to  Nature,  the  true  Ht^rault,  a  short  distance 
away,  laid  his  head  on  the  block  as  a  traitor  to  the  father- 
land.    What  a  contrast  ! 

Then  came  Camille,  who,  in  rage,  had  torn  nearly  all  his 
clothes  from  his  body,  cursing  Robespierre,  who  had  been 
for  twenty  years  his  friend,  and  a  few  years  ago  was  a  witness 
to  his  marriage  with  the  handsome  Lucile.  "  What 

a  style  and  what  a  handsome  wife  he  had  !  "  they  yet  say  in 
France,  when  speaking  of  him,  as  they  often  do.  Indeed, 
the  personal  and  polemical  journalism  which  is  such  an 
abuse  in  that  country,  comes  chiefly  from  the  admiration 
which  young  French  journalists  feel  for  poor  Camille,  his 
style  —  and  his  wife. 

Last  came  Danton  himself.  At  the  foot  of  the  scaffold 
he  seemed  moved,  and  was  heard  to  lament,  "  ()  my  dearly 
loved  wife,  whom  I  shall  see  no  more  !  "  'I'hen  he  checked 
himself,  saying,  "  Danton,  no  weakness  !  " 

A  man  who  happened  to  be  an  eye-witness,  and  who 
has  written  his  reminiscences,  describes  his  last  moment 
thus : — 

"Danton  was  the  last  to  appear  upon  the  platform,  red 
with  the  blood  of  his  friends.  At  the  foot  of  the  horrible 
statue    [of  Liberty],  whose   enormous    mass  was    outlined 


1794]  APRIL  FIFTH.  1 95 

against  the  sky,  I  saw  the  tribune  stand,  hke  one  of  Dante's 
shadows,  half  illumined  by  the  dying  sun,  looking  ralhcr  as 
if  newly  arisen  from  the  tomb  than  ready  to  go  into  it. 
Nothing  was  ever  seen  more  brave  than  the  demeanor 
of  this  atlas  of  the  Revolution,  more  formidable  than  the 
expression  of  the  face  which  defied  the  axe,  than  the  bear- 
ing of  the  head  which,  though  about  to  fall,  seemed  still  to 
dictate  laws.  Terrible  picture  !  time  will  never  efface  it 
from  my  memory.  I  perfectly  comprehend  the  feeling  which 
inspired  him  to  utter  his  last  words,  —  these  terrible  words, 
that  I  could  not  hear,  but  which  were  repeated  in  trembling 
horror  and  admiration  :  '  Do  not  forget,'  he  said  to  the  exe- 
cutioner, '  to  show  my  head  to  the  people.  It  is  good  to 
look  at.'  " ' 

Thus  ended  the  statesman  of  the  Revolution,  the  patriot 
par  excellence,  the  disinterested  hero  ;  so  young,  and  yet  so 
strong  and  wise ;  so  able  to  organize,  create,  and  govern  ! 

But  Billaud-Varennes  lived  to  repent.  Three  months 
afterwards  he  contributes  to  Robespierre's  fall.  On  April  i, 
1795,  ^^  i^  himself  condemned,  for  some  words  in  favor  of 
the  masses,  by  the  Girondins  of  the  Convention,  to  depor- 
tation to  Cayenne.  There  he  lives  as  an  agriculturist,  and 
is  the  only  one  who  peremptorily  refuses  the  amnesty  of 
Bonaparte.  His  wife  had  secured  a  divorce  from  him  ;  mar- 
ried a  second  time,  a  wealthy  man  ;  becomes  a  widow  ;  and 
then  she  invites  Cillaud  to  come  and  share  her  wealth.  He 
refuses  this  offer  also,  with  the  words,  "  There  are  faults 
that  are  unpardonable."  At  the  time  of  the  Restoration 
he  moves  to  Hayti,  where  he  dies.  In  his  later  days  he 
used  to  say,  "  I  had  too  direct  a  share  in  Danton's  death, 
and  I  did  it  with  a  horrible  hatred.  The  misfortune  of 
revolutions  is,  that  we  must  act  too  hastily ;  we  have  no  tinie 
to  examine.     We  seem  to  be  in  a  violent  fever,  antl  are  in  a 

*  A.  V.  Arnault:  Souvenirs  oj  a  SLity-Ycar-Olcl  Man. 


196  TERROR.  [April 

mortal  dread  that  our  ideas  will  miscarry,  for  lack  of  energy. 
Danton  and  his  triends  were  able  men,  true  patriots,  and  we 
massacred  them  !  They  had  not,  like  us,  clean  hands 
(j/V/)  ;  they  loved  luxury  too  much  :  but  they  had  noble  (  ! ) 
and  revolutionary  hearts.  You  will  some  day  learn  to  know 
tlieir  services ;  then  the  true  history  of  these  times  will  be 
written.  Danton  showed  admirable  courage  in  '92  and  '93  : 
he  made  Aug.  10.  He  did  not  care  for  the  show  of  power ; 
but  what  immense  calmness  and  activity  under  the  most  diffi- 
cult circumstances  !  what  breadth  of  mind  !  what  ability  ! 

"  I  am  now  sincerely  convinced  that  there  would  have 
been  no  i8th  Bnimaire,  no  Bonaparte,  if  Danton  and 
Robespierre  had  lived  and  remained  united." 

Dr.  Robinet  asks  pertinently,  apropos  of  the  above,  "  How 
do 'noble  hearts'  and  'unclean  hands'  rhyme  together?" 
But  the  confession  of  the  crime  is  worth  having. 
*         *         * 

I  called  Danton  disinterested —  yes,  pure,  unselfish,  as 
much  so  as  Sir  Harry  Vane,  he  was,  in  spite  of  the  loads  of 
calumny  that  have  been  heaped  on  him. 

Oh,  it  is  a  burning  shame  to  France  that  her  deliverer 
should  have  lain  for  seventy  years  under  this  heap  of  oblo- 
quy before  any  one  tried  to  do  him  justice  !  that  all  the 
historians  of  the  Revolution  should  have  contributed  to 
blacken  his  memory  by  retailing  the  same  charges  !  And 
what  shall  I  say  of  Victor  Hugo,  who  in  his  novel  Ninety- 
Three,  in  an  imagined  dialogue  between  Danton  and  Marat, 
puts  him  in  the  pillory  as  a  venal  demagogue,  for  his  coun- 
trymen to  gaze  on  and  loathe  ?  With  the  fullest  conviction 
of  the  injustice  done  to  Danton,  I  say  that  this  dialogue 
deserves  to  be  branded  as  Voltaire's  La  Pueelle  has  been. 
For  now  we  know  from  Dr.  Robinet's  books,  TJie  Private 
Life  of  Danton  and  The  Trial  of  the  Dantonists,  and 
from  the  official  documents  therein  at  length  set  forth,  that 


1794-1  DANTOx  disixtI':ri-:sti-:i).  197 

every  one  of  the  charges  against  his  honesty  and  purity  of 
hfe  is  absolutely  false,  every  one  ! 

I  said  all  historians  have  retailed  the  same  charges  ;  that  is 
to  say,  each  of  them,  one  after  the  other,  has  repeated  tlic 
same  charges,  without  trying  to  verify  them  at  all,  so  that  we 
find,  by  going  far  enough  back,  that  they  all  proceed  from 
Mirabeau  and  three  personal  enemies,  —  Lafayette,  Madame 
Roland,  and  Robespierre, 

We  have  already  had  one  specimen  of  Madame  Roland's 
reliability.  Now  we  shall  see  one  of  her  proofs.  Shortly 
after  the  loth  of  August  a  robbery  of  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  royal  treasures  was  committed.  Concerning  that, 
she  writes  :  "  I  have  had  this  morning  a  visit  from  one  of 
the  robbers  of  the  gardc-meiiblcs  ;  he  came  to  see  if  he  was 
suspected,  —  Who,  then? — Fabre  d'Eglantine  [who  at  that 
time  was  Danton's  private  secretary],  — How  do  you  know? 
—  How?  Can  such  an  outrage  be  the  work  of  any  one 
but  the  audacious  Danton?  I  do  not  know  if  this  truth 
will  ever  be  mathematically  proven,  but  I  feci  it  acutely''  (  !) 

And  such  an  accusation,  though  the  robbers  were  shortly 
after  caught  and  executed,  it  is  that  Victor  Hugo  gives 
currency  to  ! 

But  the  first  regular  charge  made,  among  others,  by 
Lafayette,  is,  that  the  King  paid  Danton  an  enormous  sum, 
really  as  a  bribe,  but  under  the  pretence  of  being  a  compen- 
sation for  the  abolition  of  his  office  as  King's  counsellor. 
But  we  know,  from  official  documents  published  in  The 
Private  Life  of  Danton,  exactly  what  he  paid  for  his  office, 
and  also  what  he  received  as  compensation,  and  we  dis- 
cover that  he  received  exactly  what  he  was  entitled  to. 
With  that  amount  he  bought  land  in  his  native  town,  and  on 
his  death  we  find  him  possessed  of  precisely  that  laud  and 
nothing  else. 

Then,  they   charge   him  with   misappropriating   the   large 


198  TERROR.  [April, 

sums  of  money  tliat  had  been  intrusted  to  him  when  he  was 
virtual  dictator,  in  '92,  The  answer  is  categoric,  that  he 
did  account  for  every  soi/,  hni  that,  as  to  the  secret  expencU- 
tures,  he  refused  to  Q.ZQ.o\\n\. publicly  —  what  no  law  i-cquiicit 
0/ hi/n.  He  did,  however,  render  an  account  of  the  same  to 
the  council  of  ministers.  (See  The  Private  Life  of  Da  u  ton.) 
In  a  previous  chapter  I  have  suggested  a  probable  reason  for 
this  refusal. 

Again  :  they  charge  him  with  misappropriating,  while  in 
Belgium,  large  sums  of  money  intrusted  to  him  as  a  Repre- 
sentative on  Mission,  and  with  carrying  away  with  him  large 
loads  of  plunder,  on  leaving  the  country.  It  is  proven 

by  Cambon,  finance  minister  of  the  republic,  that  he  ac- 
counted for  the  money,  and  proven  in  other  ways  that  he 
carried  absolutely  nothing  away  with  him  /'///  Ids  own  clothes. 
(See  The  Private  Life  of  Dan  ton.) 

There  remains,  then,  but  one  charge,  which  is  worthy  of 
notice  only  because  Mirabeau  makes  it.  He  states  in  a 
letter  to  a  friend  at  court.  Count  Lamarck,  as  a  matter  of 
gossip,  but  also  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  Danton  "  yester- 
day received  thirty  thousand  livres  "  from  the  royal  treasury. 

Now,  much  has  been  made  of  the  circumstance,  espe- 
cially by  Louis  Blanc,  that  this  was  a  private  letter  which 
the  writer  not  for  a  moment  thought  would  ever  be  pub- 
lished; but  afterwards  it  came  out  that  Mirabeau  particu- 
larly charged  his  friend  to  publish  this  very  correspondence 
after  his  death. 

On  its  face,  all  must  admit  it  looks  ludicrous  tliat  Danton, 
the  destroyer  of  royalty,  the  man  who  from  the  very  start  of 
the  Revolution  fought  the  court  step  by  step,  and  was  its 
most  persistent  opponent,  should  have  been  in  its  pay. 

Ijut  Mirabeau  says  so,  says  so  positively,  and  is  in  a 
l)Osition  to  know. 

Yes,  but  remember  tliat  Mirabeau,  also,  himself  was    in 


1794-]  D ANTON  DISINTERESTED.  199 

the  habit  of  receiving  bribes  :  this  is  notorious.  He  did  not 
see  any  thing  wrong  in  it  at  all ;  he  does  not  mean  to  blame 
Danton  at  all  for  it.  He  simply  states  the  "  fact,"  I  say,  as 
a  matter  of  gossip. 

Now  suppose  a  parallel  case.  Suppose  a  woman  of  noto- 
riously easy  virtue  write  to  a  friend  of  equally  easy  virtue, 
that  "  Miss  so  and  so  has  relations  with  Mr.  so  and  so." 
Ought  this  to  convict  this  young  lady,  7vit]iout  a  particle  of 
corroborative  cviilence?  Well,  the  case  against  Danton  is  not 
a  particle  stronger  than  the  one  I  have  supposed.  There  is 
not  a  rag  of  testimony  co7-roborating  this  cliarge.  All  the 
papers  of  the  King  and  court  were  ransacked  after  his  de- 
posal ;  and,  while  they  furnished  damning  testimony  against 
Mirabeau,  there  was  7iot  an  iota  implicating  Danton.  Louis 
Blanc,  also,  is  compelled  to  admit,  "  If  Danton  received  this 
corrupting  gold,  he  by  no  means  earned  it,  and  served  the 
Revolution  none  the  less  vehemently." 

I  close  this  portion  by  quoting  this  explicit  denial  of 
Danton  at  a  meeting  of  the  Jacobins,  Dec.  3,  1 793,  when 
attacked  by  the  Ht§bertists. 

"  You  will  be  astonished,  when  I  lay  bare  to  you  my  pri- 
vate affairs,  to  see  the  colossal  fortune  which  my  enemies 
and  yours  have  charged  me  with,  reduced  to  the  little 
amount  of  property  which  I  have  always  hatl.  I  defy  my 
opponents  to  furnish  the  proof  of  any  crime  whatever  by 
me."  And  he  demanded  that  the  society  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  twelve  to  examine  the  charges,  which,  however, 
after  a  defence  by  Robespierre,  was  thought  needless. 

And  then,  the  still  more  untenable  charge,  by  Lafayette 
and  others,  that  he  was  a  dcbaiiclie,  and  "  m(;nstrously 
immoral."  Is  it  to  be  a  di'baiichc  to  have  been  married 
twice,  and  to  have  loved  both  wives  i)assionately?  For,  as 
far  as  it  is  possible  to  have  certainty  in  such  matters,  these 
are  the  only  women  with  wliom  Danton  ever  had  any  carnal 


20O  TERROR.  [April, 

relation.  He  was,  as  already  said,  an  excellent  fomil}-  man, 
delighting  to  pass  all  his  leisure  in  the  cora])any  of  his 
mother,  his  stepfather,  his  wife,  and  children,  as  testiiied  to 
by  all,  especially  by  his  young  faithful  disciple,  Rousselin  dc? 
Saint-Albin,  a  well-known  character  under  Louis  Philippe, 
He  was  no  gambler.  What,  then,  are  his  "  great  vices  "  ? 
He  lived  economically  but  decently,  delighting  in  company 
and  the  healthy  enjoyments  of  life —  that  is  all. 

I  have  often  thouglit  of  how  differently  things  might  have 
turned  out  for  all  parties  and  for  France,  if,  instead  of  Danton 
marrying  Mademoiselle  Charpentier,  and  Mademoiselle  Phli- 
pon  becoming  Madame  Roland,  these  two  persons  had  met 
and  mated.  True,  Danton's  first  wife  was  a  most  noble  woman  ; 
but  unfortunately  she  died  too  early,  and  Danton  precisely 
needed  the  ambitious  helpmate  which  Mademoiselle  Phlipon 
would  have  been.  True,  also,  that  Madame  Roland  found 
Danton  unbearably  ugly,  but  Madame  Danton  did  not  think 
him  so  at  all ;  and  the  same  ambition  that  made  the  old  man 
Roland  a  desirable  mate  to  her,  might  have  rendered  Danton 
handsome  in  her  eyes,  especially  since  her  ambition  would 
have  been  really  gratified. 

A  few  words  as  to  Danton's  rhetorical  resources.  Tliat, 
he  was  eloquent,  all,  of  course,  admit ;  that  is  evident  from 
the  fact  that  he  more  than  once  was  able,  by  simply  deliver- 
ing a  speech,  to  bring  about  most  stupendous  results,  and 
that  not  with  the  masses,  but  in  the  Convention,  of  which  so 
many  learned  and  distinguished  men  were  members.  His 
gestures  and  his  delivery  must,  from  indication  furnished  by 
the  reports,  have  played  a  great  role  on  such  occasions  ;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  get  a  true  idea  of  them  now,  since  tradi- 
tion is  very  contradictory  on  tiiese  points.  'J'he  notion 
that  he  ever  used  coarse  language  is  false.  All  his  speeches 
have  been  collected,  and  they  are  absolutely  classical,  and 
will  come  to  be  so  considered  more  and  more  in  the  future. 


1794- 


D ANTON  DISINTERESTED.  201 


He  was  always  most  solicitous  for  the  dignity  of  the  Conven- 
tion ;  for  instance,  on  occasion  of  Hebert's  atheistical  mas- 
querades, which  he  put  an  end  to  by  thundering  out,  "This 
must  be  put  a  stop  to  !  "  He  possessed  the  precious  quality, 
almost  alone  among  his  contemporaries,  of  speaking  to  the 
point. 

It  has  been  made  a  reproach  to  him,  that,  when  he  had  the 
multitude  on  his  side,  he  generally  flattered  its  passions,  and 
frequently  inflamed  his  audience  still  more  by  violent,  ex- 
travagant language ;  while  when,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
masses  were  against  him,  he  seemed  afraid  to  oppose  them. 
This  is  a  very  serious  reproach,  and,  if  true,  would  stamp  him 
as  a  moral  coward.  I  admit,  that,  on  superficial  view,  the 
charge  seems  well  founded.  There  is  no  doubt  that  he 
frequently  accentuated  the  fury  of  his  audience.  But  on  a 
closer  study  we  discover,  I  think,  a  complete  justification, 
from  an  oratorical  point  of  view.  First  let  me  pre- 

mise, that  whenever  he  flings  forth  savage,  ferocious  words, 
as  he  now  and  then  does,  they  are  always  aimed  at  general- 
ities. "  He  appeared,"  as  Mignet  observes,  "  inexorable  in 
regard  to  classes,  humane  and  generous  towards  individuals." 
Therefore  whenever  he  uses  such  phrases  —  and  they  are 
very  rare  —  as  "Let  us  drink  the  blood  of  aristocrats!" 
"  Let  an  aristocratic  head  fall  every  day  !  "  (the  very  worst 
that  can  be  picked  out),  they  never  cause  any  harm.  He 
never  excited  the  people's  passions  against  individuals.  But 
this  is  the  point :  his  use  of  such  phrases  was  an  adroit 
rhetorical  manoeuvre ;  he  wanted  to  seem  to  be  in  accord 
with  his  audience,  even  to  go  beyond  them,  in  order  to  insin- 
uate moderate  measures,  to  bring  them  to  adopt  some  sensible 
measure.  This  is  visible  in  very  many  of  his  discourses  ;  for 
instance  (p.  164),  where  he  moves  to  amend  the  impracti- 
cable plan  of  Lepelletier.  This  was  always  the  case,  but 
particularly  on   the   occasion  when  he  uttered    the  above 


202  TERROR.  [April, 

murderous  words.  It  was  the  stormy  session  of  Sept.  15, 
1793,  alluded  to  in  the  previous  chapter.  Billaud  had 
moved  that  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal  be  divided  into  four 
sections,  aiid  that  a  "guillotine  folloio  each  sectioti."  By 
the  words,  "  Let  us  drink  the  blood  of  aristocrats,"  he  abso- 
lutely made  his  audience  forget  the  latter  part  of  Billaud's 
proposal,  and  thus  took  the  savage  sting  from  it.  This  should 
be  insisted  on,  to  Danton's  eternal  honor,  that  his  uiterior 
aim  was  always  good ;  that  he  never,  ncvei',  even  in  his  most 
savage  mood,  intended  to  lead  his  hearers  to  do  a  wicked 
thing.  And  what  seems  moral  cowardice  in  the  face  of  a 
hostile  multitude  was,  as  we  have  already  seen  in  the  case 
of  the  war  for  propaganda  and  the  Law  of  the  Suspects,  a 
deep-settled  conviction  in  his  mind  that  it  is  good  states- 
manship to  bend  the  head  to  storms  of  passionate  excite- 
ment, in  order  to  act  with  courageous  decision  when  the 
storm  is  over.  All  that  can  be  contended  is,  that  he  went  too 
far  in  this  policy,  stooped  too  low  ;  for  instance  once,  wlien 
he  invoked  protection  from  "  the  shadow  of  Marat,"  —  from 
the  "  individual  "  whom,  living,  he  had  heartily  despised. 

It  was  in  this  same  session  of  Sept.  15  that  he  caused 
to  be  passed  the  well-known  law  of  the  forty  sous,  wliich 
has  generally  been  considered  a  demagogic  measure.  I 
think  Danton  has  here  been  completely  misunderstood  ;  that 
he  did  not  i)ropose  this  law  as  an  economic  measure  at  all. 
It  was  in  this  session  that  Hubert's  and  Billaud's  influence 
commenced  to  be  paramount.  Their  followers  consisted  of 
that  part  of  the  Parisian  population  that  devoted  all  their 
days  and  time  to  politics,  —  the  kind  of  persons  we  know 
too  well  here  in  New  York  City.  To  offset  their  influence, 
and  checkmate  it  as  mucli  as  possible,  by  bringing  the  hard- 
working, patriotic  majority,  that  could  not  aford  to  leave 
their  work  ivithout  compensation,  to  the  sections,  it  was,  that 
he  projiosed  that  the  sections  should  be  legally  assembled 


iro^i  /).L\rox  ])js[XTi:Ri:sTEn.  203 

but  twice  a  week,  and  should  have  ih^ir  loss  of  time  reim- 
bursed on  demand.  That  puts  the  measure  in  a  very  dif- 
ferent light. 

But  do  not  believe  that  I  want  to  make  Danton  into  a 
saint.  While  I  firmly  believe  him  an  uncorrupted  and  in- 
corruptible man,  I  must  say  that  he  sometimes  was  not  above 
corrupting  others,  and  was  even  cynical  about  it.  I  do  not 
now  speak  of  the  possible  bribe  to  the  mistress  of  the  King 
of  Prussia,  which  many  honest  souls  would  excuse,  consider- 
ing a  bribe  that  saves  one's  country  from  ruin  in  war,  merely 
a  ruse  of  war. 

No,  I  refer  to  something  else.  In  a  speech  delivered  in 
September,  1 793,  he  declares  that  with  gold  they  ought  to 
conquer  the  Lyonnaise  insurrection.    These  are  his  words  :  — 

"  I  say  that  with  three  or  four  millions  we  might  have 
reconquered  Toulon  for  France,  and  hung  the  traitors  who 
delivered  that  city  to  the  English.  You  will  say,  your  decrees 
have  no  entrance  there.  Well,  has  the  corrupting  gold  of 
your  enemies  not  had  entrance?  You  have  put  fifty  millions 
at  the  disposition  of  the  Committee  of  Public  Welfare.  That 
is  not  enough.  Undoubtedly  a  hundred  millions  would  be 
well  spent,  if  they  served  to  conquer  liberty.  If  we  had 
rewarded  the  patriotism  of  the  popular  societies  at  Lyons, 
that  city  would  not  be  in  the  state  in  which  it  is.  I  suppose 
no  one  does  not  know  that  we  need  secret  expenses  in  order 
to  save  the  country." 

Indeed,  everybody  knew  that.  But  Danton  was  entirely 
too  frank,  and  this  they  called  cynical.  In  those  days  they 
would  blush  to  talk  loudly  about  money.  To  corrupt  the 
enemy  might  be  a  sad  necessity,  but  to  talk  of  "  rewarding 
the  zeal  of  republicans  "  (  ! )  that  was  too  much  for  tlie  man- 
ners of  the  time.  This,  no  doubt,  did  much  to  lessen  his 
influence  in  these  fatal  autumn  months  of  '93,  when  it  was 
so  much  needed.  *         *         * 


204  TERROR.  [April, 

Especially  when  judged  by  the  fashion  of  the  times  or  by 
the  habits  of  his  contemporaries,  Danton  indulged  but  rarely 
in  hyperbolic  language,  and  still  more  seldom  was  he  flip- 
pant ;  but  he  did  so  indulge,  and  flippantly,  in  one  instance, 
before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal,  of  which  his  serious 
Positivist  admirers,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  seem  to  feel  proud. 
Asked  for  his  name  and  residence,  as  a  matter  of  form,  he 
gave  for  answer,  "Ma  demeure  sera  bientot  dans  Ic  neaiit'''' 
("  My  home  wiU  soon  be  nothingness").  This,  on 

first  view,  will  prejudice  refined  and  cultured  Anglo-Saxons 
against  him,  since  with  themselves  doubts  about  God  and  im- 
mortality cause  pain,  at  all  events.  Yet  something  can  be  said 
for  his  beliefs,  as  far  as  we  know  them,  the  flippp,ncy  aside. 
This  may  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  French  Revolution, 
as  it  denoted  a  transition  in  economic,  political,  and  social 
relations,  it  likewise  was  a  transition  phase  from  the  religion 
of  the  Middle  Ages  to  the  religion  of  the  future. 

Danton  repudiated  atheism.  On  one  occasion  he  pro- 
posed festivals  where  the  people  could  worship  the  Supreme 
Being,  the  Lord  of  nature,  "  for  we  have  not  destroyed  super- 
stition to  establish  the  reign  of  atheism.'^  Danton,  as  well 
as  Diderot,  denounced  "  the  great  superstition  ;  "  that  is  to 
say,  the  popuhir,  the  dogmatic  conception,  in  tlie  first  place, 
of  God.  They  repudiated  the  idea  of  a  lawless  despot, 
omnipotent,  and  consequently  siding  with  the  rich  and 
powerful  of  this  world.  And  when  we  read  in  a  late  work. 
Groundwork  of  Economies,  by  an  orthodox  believer,  that 
the  only  valid  reason  why  the  many  shall  toil  for  the  few  is 
the  evident  will  of  God,  then  even  to  atheism,  as  a  protest 
against  such  a  God,  against  false  gods,  one  may  become 
reconciled.  But  Danton  could  not  possibly  be  wanting  in 
faith  in  the  Ideal,  he  who  moved  thousands  to  sacrifice  their 
lives  for  liberty  and  fiitherland. 

And    in   like    manner   the    revolutionists  repudiated    tlie 


I794-]  DANS  LE  NEANT.  2^.5 

popular  ideas  of  immortality.  Cultured  people  of  the  future 
will  hardly  be  able  to  do  without  the  hope  of  immortality. 
William  Morris's  idea,  that  people  will  by  and  by  be  so  happy 
on  earth  that  they  will  be  dreadfully  afraid  of  death,  seems 
to  me  preposterous  ;  and  George  EHot's  conception,  of  living 
in  the  thoughts  of  posterity,  will  hardly  sufifice.  But  if  the 
idea  of  immortality  shall  commend  itself  to  the  instructed 
minds  of  the  future,  it  evidently  must  be  cleared  of  its  earth- 
ly dross,  —  precisely  that  against  which  the  Encycfopaedists 
protested.  The  desire  to  remember  our  earthly  experiences, 
to  remember  whether  we  have  been  kings  or  beggars  here, 
will  be  accounted  by  our  posterity  simply  a  passing  weakness 
of  the  flesh,  I  am  sure,  and  death  be  looked  upon  as  a 
sponge  that  wipes  out  our  memory  (as  diseases,  in  some  well- 
authenticated  instances,  have  done  completely  :  a  new  mem- 
ory thereupon  having  been  formed),  w'hile  it  is  the  ego,  the 
/,  vouched  for  by  consciousness,  that  will  be  held  to  persist. 

But,  at  all  events,  Danton  was  a  faithful  instrument  to  the 
Power  behind  Evolution,  —  an  unselfish  instrument,  and  that 
is  the  essential  thing.  His  heroic  cry,  "  May  my  name  be 
accursed,  if  but  the  cause  be  saved!''''  should  always  be 
remembered  whenever  his  name  be  spoken.  It  certainly  is 
better  to  do  the  will  of  God  while  denying  his  name,  than 
to  acknowledge  it  while  defying  his  will. 

How  grateful  France  should  feel  to  Danton,  its  deliverer  ! 
How  grateful,  especially,  its  bourgeoisie,  the  beneficiary  of 
his  herculean  labor  !  But  look  !  for  seventy  years  there 
liardly  was  even  a  peasant's  hut  or  a  workman's  shop  that 
did  not  have  the  picture  of  a  Bonaparte  (  ! )     Danton's  was 

found  no\vhere. 

*         *         * 

Robespierre,  though  not  the  originator  of  the  act,  was,  by 
his  sanction  of  it,  the  murderer  of  Danton  and  friends. 
He  became  the  beneficiary  of  the  executions  —  nominally ; 


206  TERROR.  [May, 

tliat  is  to  say,  he  liatl  lor  four  months  the  honor  of  being 
the  sole  man  to  whom  to  look  up  in  France,  but  also  the 
cloak  behind  which  Billaud  and  his  fellow-Terrorists  could 
safely  terrorize.  Thus  the  latter  ones  were  the  real  bene- 
ficiaries. Let  us  simply  compare  the  number  of  executions 
up  to  Danton's  death,  and  after. 

From  Aug.  17,  1792,  to  Oct.  2,  1793,  more  than  a  year, — 
that  is  to  say,  the  period  when  Danton  had  power, — ^^  there 
were  90  executions.  From  Oct.  2,  '93,  to  April  5,  '94, 
six  months,  and  while  he  was  powerless,  there  were  462  more  ; 
in  all,  552  executions.  But  a/Zcr  his  death,  from  April  5,  '94, 
to  July  28,  '94,  for  three  months  and  three  weeks,  they  rise 
to  2,oSj  executions,  or  20  a  day  on  an  average.  The 
most  atrocious  of  these  w^as  that  of  the  sweet,  lovely,  inno- 
cent Lucile,  wife  of  Camille,  just  one  week  after  her  hus- 
band's death,  without  a  motive  at  all.  Yet,  in  order 
to  be  perfectly  fair,  we  should  remember  that  at  this  con- 
temporary period  there  was  many  a  year  when  just  as  many 
executions  took  place  in  Great  Britain  as  during  the  whole 
"year  of  Terror;"  only,  because  the  victims  were  mostly 
petty  criminals,  no  notice  was  taken  of  them. 

How  came  Robespierre  to  this  immense  power  ?  Do  not 
think  for  a  moment  that  he  imposed  on  the  Convention  as 
a  whole,  or  on  the  really  able  men.  Danton  despised  him,  — 
that  is,  his  capacity,  —  and  so  did  most  capable  men.  But  all 
feared  him,  because  he  had  the  masses  at  his  back.  He  had 
an  enormous  ascendency  over  the  common  people  ever 
since  Mirabeau's  venality  had  been  revealed.  From  thence 
the  people  saw  in  him,  by  contrast,  the  Incorruptible ;  and 
he  tvas  incorruptible.  But  for  that  very  reason  Robespierre 
should  be  a  solemn  warning  to  our  own  j)eople,  and  teach  us 
that  incorruptibility  is  not  enough,  is /<;/■ //v^/;/  cnoi/gIi,m 
a  leader.  He  was  the  impersonification  of  incorruptibility 
plus  imbecility. 


1794.]  THE  IXCORRUPTIBLE.  20^ 

We  have  already  noted  what  that  noble  (iirondin,  Con- 
dorcet,  thought  of  Danton.  The  following  is  what  he  had  to 
say  of  Robespierre  :  — 

"  People  ask  themselves  why  so  many  women  follow 
Robespierre  everywhere,  —  home,  to  the  Jacobins,  to  the 
Convention,  to  the  Cordeliers.  It  is,  that  the  French  Revo- 
lution is  a  religion,  and  Robespierre  makes  a  sect  of  it,  — 
/le  is  a  priest  who  has  his  devotees.  He  preaches,  he  moral 
izes ;  he  is  furious,  grave,  melancholic,  severe  in  his  speech 
and  his  conduct ;  he  thunders  against  the  rich  and  the  great ; 
he  spends  but  little,  and  has  but  few  physical  wants.  His 
whole  mission  consists  in  talking,  and  he  is  almost  always 
talking.  He  has  disciples  who  guard  his  person ;  he  in  no 
way  resembles  the  founder  of  a  religion,  but  in  many  ways 
the  founder  of  a  sect.  He  always  has  God  and  providence 
on  his  lips.  He  proclaims  himself  the  champion  of  the 
poor  and  the  weak ;  he  affects  the  company  of  women  and 
the  childlike  ;  he  gravely  accepts  their  homage  and  venera- 
tion. He  hides  himself  at  the  approach  of  danger,  and  does 
not  re-appear  till  the  danger  is  over." 

Robespierre,  undoubtedly,  was  sincerely  attached  to  the 
masses.  He  went  as  far  as  anybody  —  remember  his  consti- 
tutional proposals  in  regard  to  business  and  property  —  in 
advocating  economic  measures  in  the  interest  of  the  poor. 
He  wanted  the  State  to  exist  for  them,  and  the  government 
to  be  carried  on  for  their  benefit.  Like  all  Jacobins,  he 
believed  that  the  government  should  be  conducted  by  the 
competent  and  wise  ;  but  he  further  held  that  he,  Robe- 
spierre, was  the  only  person  competent  to  govern.  He  verily 
fancied  that  his  God  had  sent  him  on  purpose  to  govern 
France ;  that  he  was  the  very  prophet  of  (jod. 

First  of  all,  then,  he  wanted  to  moralize  men.  "  We 
want,"  he  said,  "  in  our  country,  to  substitute  morality  in 
place  of  egoism,  principles  in  place  of  customs,  dut)'  instead 


208  TERROR.  [June, 

of  pleasure,  greatness  instead  of  \anity,  love  of  glory  instead 
of  love  of  money ;  "  in  a  word,  to  put  all  the  virtues  in 
place  of  all  the  vices.  That,  precisely,  was  what  Danton  did 
not  want ;  he  had  no  ambition  to  change  the  inner  man, 
but  he  did  want  to  surround  his  fellow-men  with  better 
material  conditions. 

This  made  Danton  a  strong,  wise  man,  and  that  rendered 
Robespierre  an  imbecile,  a  fool. 

Now,  it  is  easy  to  understand  Robespierre's  intolerance, 
his  cruelty.  All  who  differed  from  him  were  bad  people  ; 
no  conciliation  with  them  !     Oh,  no  ;  cut  their  heads  off! 

His  folly  went  so  far  that  he  verily  believed  that  society 
was  at  his  disposal,  and  so  independent  of  all  its  past  de- 
velopment that  he  could  refashion  it  to  suit  himself  by 
simple  legislation,  and  with  the  guillotine  for  sanction. 

No  wonder  he  did  not  accomplish  any  thing.  Though 
he  for  four  months  had  more  absolute  power  in  France  than 
Louis  XIV.  possessed,  he  initiated  not  a  single  measure  for 
founding  the  republic ;  not  to  one  decree  of  public  utility 
did  he  attach  his  name.  There  are  only  two  measures  to 
mark  his  reign,  —  one  the  puerile /^/^  to  the  Supreme  Being, 
really  a  fete  to  himself,  and  that  most  extraordinary  de- 
cree ever  passed,  the  infamous  law  of  Prairial  (of  June), 
suppressing  all  testimony  and  all  defence  by  those  accused 
before  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal. 

It  is  Robespierre's  sad  honor  to  be  the  exclusive  author 
of  this  law,  whose  efficiency  may  be  seen  from  the  fact,  that, 
of  the  2,085  executed  after  the  death  of  Danton,  only  739 
belong  to  the  period  before  the  passage  of  the  law  (d/  days), 
and  1,346  to  the  period  thereafter  {4J  days).  It  is  said,  and 
without  doubt  correctly,  that  the  use  he  meant  to  put  the 
law  to  was,  to  rid  himself  of  his  Terrorist  fellow-members  of 
committees.  The  latter  seem  to  have  become  aware  of  it, 
and  anticipated  him. 


1794.]  THE  INCORRUPTIBLE.  209 

There  is  a  twofold  reason  why  lie  suceumbed.  The 
Parisians  have  been  eited  as  an  example  of  popular  ingrati- 
tude in  not  saving  even  their  greatest  idol.  That  is  wrong. 
They  were,  at  all  events,  not  fickle  ingrates  :  they  still  trusted 
in  Robespierre ;  indeed,  there  was  no  one  else  left  for  them 
to  trust  in.  They  would  have  responded  to  his  call,  and 
undoubtedly  have  carried  him  through,  if  he  had  appealed 
to  them  \  but  also  for  that  he  was  too  imbecile. 

Next,  his  adversaries  succeeded  because  they  played  off 
the  Convention  against  him.  They  proposed  to  aliolish  the 
absolute  committee,  and  restore  power  to  the  Convention  ; 
they  organized  the  Convention  for  that  purpose,  and  this 
proved  the  stronger  force.  But,  in  destroying  the  cloak  that 
had  hitherto  sheltered  them,  they  were  compelled  to  cease 
tlieir  Red  Terror.  Robespierre,  who  had  given  a 

mock  trial  to  Danton,  did  not  get  even  that  much  himself: 
lie  was  simply  declared  an  outlaw,  to  be  guillotined  when- 
ever laid  hands  on.  A  genstfanne  fired  upon  him,  breaking 
his  jaw,  before  securing  him. 

With  the  fall  of  Robespierre,  then,  .ends  the  absolute 
"Revolutionary"  Government.  But,  unluckily,  at  the  same 
time  ends  the  strong  government,  advocated  by  Danton  ;  and 
anarchy  virtually  reigns  for  five  years,  till  Bonaparte  steps 
upon  the  scene.  And  with  his  fiill  ends,  moreover,  the  gov- 
ernment for  the  masses ;  the  plutocrats  are  again  restored  to 
power,  and  henceforth  France  is  governed  by  the  plutocrats 
for  the  plutocrats. 

Looking  back  over  the  episode  of  the  fourteen  months' 
rule  of  the  Jacobins,  the  thought  occurs  to  me,  that  possibly 
events  might  have  had  another  course,  if  all  the  leaders  had 
not  been  such  young  men.  They  were  all,  at  most,  thirty 
to  thirty-five  years  old  when  they  fL-ll.  Mature  and  ripened 
age  does,  after  all,  count  for  something. 


210  TERROR.  rSummer, 

Robespierre's  shiljbolelh  was  Equality,  as  Liberty  for  a 
time  had  been  Danton's. 

Saint-Just,  the  fanatic  youth  and  Robespierre's  closest 
friend,  ended  the  speech  in  wliicli  he  demanded  of  the  com- 
mittees Danton's  arrest,  with  these  ominous  words  :  "  Our 
people  must  learn  to  be  modest ;  the  solid,  hig/wst  good  is 
obscure  probity y  The  natural  conclusion  from  that  was,  that 
all  heads  that  protruded  above  this  ideal  level  of  "  obscure 
probity  "  should  be  cut  off,  as  "  factious." 

That,  candidly  expressed,  was  Robespierre's  philosophy  in 
a  nutshell,  and  the  practical  application  of  it  was  the  execu- 
tion of  Danton  and  Lavoisier.  The  latter  was  the  most 
illustrious  French  representative  of  science,  to  whom  the 
office  of  a  farmer-general  of  revenue  had  been  conferred  by 
Louis  XVL  as  a  recognition  of  his  scientific  contributions. 
Under  Robespierre,  all  farmers-general  since  the  accession 
of  Louis  were  prosecuted  for  the  large  incomes  they  had 
drawn  from  their  offices,  and  all  sentenced  to  death  by  tlie 
Revolutionary  Tribunal,  Lavoisier  among  them.  He  asked 
a  few  days'  grace,  in  order  to  write  down  a  discovery  by  him 
in  chemistry ;  but  Robespierre  refused  tlie  prayer,  as  it 
would  be  a  violation  of  "  equality."  Danton,  it  will  be  re- 
membered, was  brutally  refused  the  privilege  of  defending 
himself  at  the  bar  of  the  Convention,  because  "  We  do  not 
want  any  idols."  Ecjuality  is  certainly  one  requisite  of 
democracy,  but  such  an  interpretation  of  it  as  that  by 
Robespierre  would  destroy  all  progress. 

Li  what,  then,  does  true  eciuality  consist? 

Let  us  for  a  moment  consider  its  opposite,  Carlyle's  Jiero 
7voi'sJiip,  —  a  sentimental  reverence  for  great  men,  and  con- 
tempt for  the  great  mass.  It  is  a  prominent  Britisli  char- 
acteristic. Let  somebody  do  a  worthy  deed,  and  he  will 
be  appreciated  nowhere  more  than  in  (Jreat  P>ritain.  They 
have  a  high  sense  o{  personal  c\\\\\\i^,  and  that  is  commend- 


1794.1  "  MONSIE  URr'  211 

able;  but  their  souse  of  human  claims  is  weaker  than  else- 
vvhere,  as  already  remarked  by  Dr.  Johnson :  "  Sir,  we 
Englishmen  do  not  yet  understand  the  coniinon  riglits  of 
hiiiiianify."  But  there  is   a  class   among   them  of 

whom  Mallock  is  the  representative.  If  he  were  ])erfectly 
frank  he  would  say,  "  Life  is  not  worth  living  to  any  but  an 
aristocracy.  An  aristocracy  implies  an  exclusive  class,  im- 
plies that  the  mass  of  men  be  kept  down.  Then  let  them 
be  kept  down,  for  it  is  better  that  life  be  enjoyed  by  some 
than  that  it  be  enjoyed  by  none."  This  is  a  sentiment  so 
selfish  as  to  be  Satanic,  and  it  is  false. 

I  think  true  equality  lies  between  the  two  extremes.  The 
great  mass  of  humanity,  the  coininomuealth  of  viankiiui,  is  a 
holy  object,  to  labor  for  whose  welfare  is  the  only  worthy 
living,  the  only  true  life.  It  is  this  mass,  this  commonwealth, 
this  association  of  our  kind,  that  every  man  among  us  is, 
jointly  and  equally  with  every  other  man,  dependent  upon 
for  all  he  is  and  all  he  enjoys,  and  of  it  and  of  its  well-being 
we  are  equal  partakers.  But  of  this  well-being  we  are  not 
EQUAL  PRODUCERS.  There  are  superior  men  and  women. 
We  all  have  our  superiors,  recognized  or  unrecognized  ;  and 
it  is  a  very  unhealthy  state  of  affairs  not  to  recognize  our 
superiors  when  we  meet  them  or  have  to  work  with  them,  as 
we  constantly  have  to  do.  It  is  especially  our  plu- 

tocrats, and  not  our  working-classes,  who  exhibit  a  vulgar 
arrogance,  puerile  self-complacency,  and  wanton  insolence 
and  effrontery  towards  their  true  superiors  ;  and  with  their 
class  this  unhealthy  sentiment  will  probably  disappear. 

But  it  is  only  when  genius  works  for  the  general  good  that 
it  is  entitled  to  consideration.  The  greatest  genius  under 
heaven  is  only  a  nuisance,  and  ought  unceremoniously  to  be 
swept  into  oblivion,  if  he  serves  but  his  own  individual  vanity, 
and  holds  aloof  fro  in  the  common  life.  The  reward  of  the 
superior  person  is  his  share  of  the  common  well-being. 


212  TERROR.  [1794. 

Therefore  also  it  is,  that  inimorlahty  can  be  admitted  only 
of  what  is  common  to  us  all,  —  what  unites  us  to  each  other, 
not  of  what  discriminates  us  from  each  other.  The  religion 
of  the  past  nourishes  an  arrogant,  self-seeking,  sneaking  hope 
of  and  striving  after  personal  private  blessings ;  and  this  is 
precisely  what  condemns  it  as  essentially  vicious,  anti-social. 
The  religion  of  the  future  will  teach  us  that  we  are,  above 
all,  social  beings,  and  know  of  no  blessings  which  our  fellows 
cannot  legitimately  share.  It  will  inculcate  that  the  same 
destiny,  whatever  it  be,  is  awaiting  us  all. 

The  last  reported  words  of  Robespierre,  spoken  when  he 
was  lying  on  a  table  in  the  anteroom  of  the  Convention, 
with  broken  jaws,  waiting  to  be  guillotined,  indicate  that  he 
was  conscious  that  his  "  equality  "  was  at  an  end.  Under 
the  rule  of  the  Jacobins  the  form  of  address  was  always  ciio- 
yen  ("citizen")  and  citoyenne  ("  citizeness"),  as  it,  in  fact, 
is  in  our  days  everywhere  among  French  Socialists.  But 
when  a  bystander  took  pity  on  Robespierre  and  handed  him 
a  glass  of  water,  he  thanked  him  by  using  the  okl  form,  so 
long  in  disuse  :  "  Mcrci,  Monsieur  !  " 


CHAPTER  VII. 

THE   PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE. 
July  88,  1794,  to  our  days. 

"  If  a  great  change  is  to  be  made  in  human  affairs,  the  minds  of  men  will  be 
fitted  to  it,  the  general  opinions  and  feelings  will  draw  that  way.  Every  fear, 
every  hofe,  will  favor  it.  Then  they  who  persist  in  opposing  this  mighty  cur- 
rent in  humafi  affairs  will  appear  to  resist  rather  the  decree  of  Providence  itself 
than  the  jnere  designs  of  men."  —  Burke:   Thoughts  on  the  French  Revolution. 

Plutocrats  again  in  Power.  —  iSth  Brumaire.  —  "  Tiiou  hast  been 
Weighed  AND  FOUND  Wanting."  —  Present  Tendencies  of  Soci- 
eties.—  In  Proportion  as  the  Mental  Preparation  is  Complete, 
WILL  THE  Coming  Revolution  be  Easy.  —  "  God  wills  it." 

SO  the  "  episode,"  the  interregnum,  is  at  an  end ;  the 
rule  for  the  masses  is  over.  The  plutocrats  return  to 
power ;  they  resume  their  suspended  legitimate  dominion,  — 
the  dominion  l>y  tJie  plutocrats  for  the  fiiitocrats.  Qa  ira  ! 
Indeed,  "it  goes,"  without  interruption,  until  our  days;  yes, 
and  a  little  beyond. 

It  is  perfectly  in  order  that  the  proscribed  Girondins,  as 
many  as  are  yet  alive,  return  to  their  vacant  seats  in  the 
Convention.  They  can  now  safely  take  charge  of  the  helm 
of  state ;  for  France  and  the  Revolution  are  secure,  thanks 
to  the  Jacobins,  and  to  Danton  especially.  Only  moderate 
firmness  is  now  reciuired. 

However,  the  first  exhibition  they  make  of  their  firmness 
is  the  so-called  "White  Terror,"  the  terribly  bloody  revenge 
they  take  on  the  Jacobins.  But  so  it  has  always  been  in 
France  since  that  fatal  massacre  in  1791   on  the  Champ  de 


214       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

Mars.  Whenever  a  new  party  gets  the  upper  hand,  ivhich- 
evcr  it  is,  ahvays  the  tiger  in  the  Frenchman  comes  to  the 
surface.     The  first  thing  attended  to  is  always  revenge. 

Next,  the  plutocrats,  especially  the  speculators,  indulge 
in  perfect  economic  orgies.  Immediately  they  abolish  the 
maximum  ;  so  glorious  Free  Competition  reigns  henceforth 
untrammelled.  What  does  it  matter  that  famine  once  more 
decimates   the   Parisians?  A    still   more    important 

measure  is  the  re-opening  of  the  Exchange. 

Their  objective  point  is,  all  the  time,  land,  land,  of  wliich, 
as  we  saw,  the  State  has  become  seized  to  an  immense 
amount.  In  previous  chapters  we  left  the  speculators  in 
possession  of  a  great  lot  of  national  estates,  —  about  four 
hundred  million  dollars  worth,  —  for  which,  as  a  rule,  lliey 
had  paid  but  the  first  instalment  of  twelve  per  cent,  but 
with  a  decree  for  the  distribution  of  the  communal  lands 
among  the  pooi\  and  another,  promising  a  milliard's  worth 
of  land  to  the  soldiers  in  their  way.  How  shall  they  get 
more  land  into  their  hands?  "Ah,  let  us  get  up  lot- 

teries." Why  not?  Soon  the  hideous  lottery  is  in  open  blast 
in  Paris,  laying  the  foundation  for  some  of  the  finest  fortunes 
of  to-day.  But  the  most  popular  manner  of  securing  posses- 
sion of  land  is  to  become  a  riz-pain-scl  (rice-bread-salt), — 
a  contractor  for  one  of  the  numerous  armies,  —  and  take 
land  in  payment,  generally  by  a  roundabout  process,  by 
which  the  nation  is  enormously  swindled  in  various  ways. 
One  of  these  ways,  of  course,  is,  to  furnish  poor  articles  at 
extravagant  prices ;  another,  to  depreciate  the  assignais,  as 
hereafter  to  be  told. 

A  new  constitution,  of  course,  they  must  have.  That  is 
the  one  known  as  the  Constitution  of  '95,  —  virtually  that 
of  '91,  with  Montesquieu's  pet  idea  of  two  chambers  intro- 
duced. But,  in  the  new  constitution,  there  is  an  article  tliat 
shows  how  anxious  the  plutocrats  are  to  liave  tlieir  ])osses- 


1886.  ]  PL  UTOCRA  TS  A  GA IN  IN  PO  WER.  2 1 5 

sions  —  their  thefts  rather  —  legahzed  :  it  is  section  374, 
which  reads  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  French  nation  proclaims,  as  a  guaranty  of  public 
faith,  that  the  legitimate  holder  of  the  national  estates,  what- 
ever the  origin  of  title,  shall  never  be  dispossessed." 

When,  then,  French  bourgeois  prate  of  society  resting  on 
property,  they  mean  on  scandals  and  robberies. 

At  last  the  Convention  puts  an  end  to  its  existence,  after 
having  created  an  executive  power  in  the  Directory,  whose 
members  consist  of  those  exclusively  who  had  voted  for 
Louis''  death  ;  for  now  this  test  becomes  of  capital  impor- 
tance to  France.  Shortly  afterwards  the  French  people  —  or, 
rather,  the  French  electors  —  get  more  and  more  re-action- 
ary ;  to  such  an  extent,  finally,  that  the  majority  of  the  lower 
Chamber  is  royalist.  Had  Louis  XVIII.  at  that  time  been 
recalled,  it  might  have  been  fatal  to  the  Revolution  ;  the  old 
regime  would  certainly  have  been  restored  in  many  essential 
features.  But  the  fact  that  the  Directory  are  all  regicides 
saves  it,  —  saves  the  republic  against  the  electors  by  com- 
mitting, with  the  assistance  of  the  young  republican  general 
Hoche,  the  eoup  d'etat  of  i8th  Fructidor,  year  V.  (4th  of 
September,  1 797)  ;  that  is  to  say,  by  arresting  fifty  monarchic 
conspirators,  members  of  the  Chamber,  and  sending  them 
to  Guiana.  This  coup  d'etat  was  as  legitimate  as  the 

insurrection  of  Aug.  10  ;  for  nobody,  not  even  a  peojile,  has 
a  right  to  defy  the  decree  of  evolution,  to  re-act  against  the 
current  of  evolution. 

That  the  government  of  France,  since  the  fall  of  Robe- 
spierre, is  in  league  with  the  speculators,  is  shown  by  the 
depreciation  of  the  assignats.  It  was  they,  as  we  have  seen, 
that  had  enabled  France  to  support  her  numerous  armies, 
and  hurl  all  her  enemies  back  ;  but  that  had  been  possible 
only  by  issuing  them  in  quantities,  reasonable  when  com- 
pared with  the  national  estates  that  served  as  their  basis. 


2l6       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

and  by  prohibiting  all  speculation  in  thcni.  I'p  to  July  2S, 
1 794,  there  had  been  issued  of  paper  money  seven  and  a 
half  milliards,  in  denominations  not  exceeding  five  hundred 
francs,  and  many  of  fifty,  twenty-five,  ten,  and  even  two  francs 
and  a  half;  and  on  that  date  the  value  of  national  estate 
unsold  was  still  very  large.  The  Jacobin  party  had  con- 
sidered it  a  matter  of  honor  to  maintain  the  national  credit, 
and  for  that  reason  sought  to  bring  the  assignats  ifito  the 
hands  of  small  traders,  artisans,  and  peasants.  But  with 
the  advent  to  power  of  the  plutocrats  quite  another  system 
prevails  :  it  is  the  evident  intention  of  the  government  to 
depreciate  the  paper  money,  shown  by  the  insensate  emis- 
sions now  ordered.  Not  less  than  thirty-eight  milliards  are 
issued,  in  denominations  of  ten  thousand,  five  thousand,  and 
two  thousand  francs,  fabricated  on  their  face  for  the  account 
of  bankers  and  contractors,  who  accept  of  them  at  a  rate 
which  they  themselves,  as  masters  of  the  money  market, 
regulate,  in  order,  later  on,  to  exchange  them  en  masse  for 
land.  Other  contractors,  who,  instead  of  accepting  the 
assignats,  had  caused  themselves  to  be  inscribed  in  the 
Great  Ledger  as  creditors,  later  on  claim  and  are  allowed 
land  to  as  much  as  twenty  times  their  inscriptions,  as  if  the 
depreciation  in  the  paper  money  had  affected  their  debt 
also ;  and,  when  any  patriot  remonstrates,  there  comes  the 
cool  reply,  "  We  must  humor  these  contractors,  if  we  wish 
our  armies  to  go  on  conquering." 

Then  the  land-grabbers  attack  the  decree  for  distributing 
communal  lands.  They  have  a  law  passed  forbidding  the 
communes  to  distribute  these  lands,  unless,  in  every  case,  a 
special  law  be  passed  authorizing  them  to  proceed.  That  is 
the  last  that  is  heard   of  tliat  matter.  Everywhere 

they  gorge  themselves  with  lands,  many  paying  not  even  the 
thirtieth  |)a!-t  of  their  real  value. 

No  womlcr  there  was  consternation   in   their  canij)  when. 


1886]  EIGHTEENTIT  nRU.IfA/RE.  21/ 

one  (lay,  they  suddenly  heard  of  tlie  aceidcntal  discovery  of 
a  determined  attempt  to  settle,  once  for  all,  with  them,  and 
to  introduce  Communism  by  force  into  France.  This  so- 
called  "  conspiracy  of  Babeuf,"  for  which  the  latter  and  his 
principal  abetter  suffered  death,  had  every  chance  to  suc- 
ceed at  the  start ;  but  that  also  would  have  been  doomed 
to  final  failure,  for  it  was  another  false  interpretation  of 
"  God's  mysterious  text."  Babeuf 's  plan  contemplated 
common  possession  of  ei'ery  thing,  "common  labor  and  com- 
mon enjoyment,"  or  ^'^/^(z/ enjoyment,  irrespective  of  talent, 
zeal,  activity,  or  quality  of  labor,  —  a  scheme  certain  to 
create  a  dead  level,  a  petrified  civilization ;  and,  in  order 
to  work  such  a  system,  a  human  nature  very  different  from 
what  we  know  would  evidently  be  required.  But  then,  it 
was  precisely  a  part  of  the  plan  of  Babeuf  to  change 
human  nature,  as  Robespierre  had  proposed  to  dc.  His 
disciple  Buonarotti  tells  us  that  he  designed,  "  instructed  by 
the  lessons  and  experience  of  the  great  men  of  antiquity  "  (like 
Robespierre),  "to  gwQiicw  manners  to  the  French  people." 
*         *         * 

Shortly  afterwards  the  plutocrats  heard  of  the  victories  of 
Bonaparte.  What  a  splendid  young  man,  who  took  the  sans- 
culotte armies  to  pillage  in  Italy  and  Egypt,  and  thereby 
diverted  their  thoughts  from  the  national  estates  at  home, 
promised  them  by  that  annoying  decree  !  Indeed,  from  that 
tune  it  is  never  spoken  of:  the  ribbon  of  the  "Legion  of 
Honor  "  takes  the  place  of  land. 

No  wonder  Bonaparte's  coup  d'etat  of  iSth  Bruniaire 
(Nov,  9,  1799)  had  an  immense  popularity.  The  pluto- 
crats had  really,  for  some  time,  been  talking  among  them- 
selves about  what  a  skilful  guardian  he  would  make.  There 
was  no  one  to  dispute  him  the  leadership,  since  that  sincere 
rei)ublican,  the  hero  of  iSth  Fnutidor,  young  Gen.  Hoche, 
was  dead. 


21 8       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

Thesc  plutocrats  were  more  clear-headed  than  the  histo- 
rians who  have  asserted  that  this  coup  cVilat  was  a  death- 
blow to  the  Revolution.  It  never  occurred  to  them  to  see  in 
that  event  the  termination  of  the  grand  movement  com- 
menced, as  they  put  it,  July  14,  17S9  ;  and  they  were  riglu. 

Many  years  afterward  the  nephew  of  Bonaparte  wrote  in 
a  pamphlet,  Les  Idees  Napoleonienncs  :  "  Without  Napoleon 
the  Revolution  would  have  been  drowned  in  the  CQunter- 
Revolution.  He  rooted  the  Revolution  in  France,  and 
introduced  its  principal  benefits  throughout  Europe.  He 
recalled  the  emigres,  without  repealing  the  latos  which  con- 
fiscated their  properties''  The  nephew  was  right : 
Bonaparte  did  root  the  Revolution  in  France.  Danton  had 
crushed  the  counter-Revolution  to  the  ground,  but  Bona- 
parte finished  the  work  by  making  it  iinpossildc  for  the 
ancient  regime  ever  to  return.  Louis  XVHI.  in  power  in 
I  799  would  have  been  just  as  dangerous  to  the  Revolution 
as  two  years  earlier. 

For  also  under  Bonaparte  the  plutocrats  remained  the 
real  social  power.  The  first  thing  they  tliought  of,  as  in 
every  change  of  government,  was  the  security  of  their  booty. 
Bonaparte  quieted  them.  He  wrote  in  tlie  Imperial  Con- 
stitution of  1804, — 

"  Any  law  adopted  by  the  Legislative  Chamber  may  be 
vetoed  by  any  senator  if  it  be  contrary  to  the  irrevocability 
of  all  sales  of  tiie  national  estates." 

He  did  more:  he  granted,  1803,  to  the  capitalists  the 
incorporation  of  the  Bank  of  France,  instead  of  making  it 
a  national  institution,  —  a  power  which  the  nepliew  later  on 
extended  till  1897. 

The  Constituent  Assembly  had  made  all  mines  national 
property.  Bonaparte  reversed  that  policy,  and  ga\-e  tliem, 
1 8 10,  into  the  private  hands  of  the  plutocrats,  by  payment  to 
the  State  of  an  insignificant  royalty. 


1886.J  EIGHTEEXriI  BRUM  A  IRE.  219 

For  ten  years  he  gave  them  all  Europe  to  plunder,  and 
monstrous  armies  to  purvey. 

He  established  for  his  motto,  "  La  carricre  oiivcrte  aux 
taleiis  "  ("  All  careers  open  to  talent  "),  which  is  nothing  but 
the  middle-class  principle  of  free  competition,  "  private  en- 
terprise." 

But  that  was  during  the  first  years  of  his  rule.  Later  on 
he  degenerated  into  a  vulgar  fortune-hunter.  He  wanted 
to  establish  a  dynasty  j  that  is  to  say,  he,  like  the  \>\wVo- 
crats,  repudiated  his  own  motto  :  both  he  and  the  plutocrats, 
after  securing  an  advantageous  position,  insisted  on  retaining 
it  for  themselves  and  their  posterity.  Later  on  still, 

he  conceived  the  notion  of  throwing  the  plutocrats  over- 
board. We  now  know  that  he  intended  to  abolish  the  con- 
tract system  for  furnishing  his  armies  ;  this  the  plutocrats 
found  out,  and  decided  to  throw  him  overboard.  It  was 
they  who  made  the  campaign  against  Russia  so  disastrous 
by  intentionally  delaying  the  provisions  for  the  armies. 
When  they  heard  of  the  defeat  at  AVaterloo,  they  caused 
rentes  to  go  up  from  59  to  85. 

They  had,  however,  made  sure  of  Louis  XVHL  before- 
hand. They  had  stipulated  that  the  new  charter  should 
contain  this  provision  :  — 

"  All  property  shall  be  inviolable,  no  exception  being  made 
as  to  the  present  holders  of  tJie  former  national  estates P 

But  when  his  brother  and  successor  seemed  inclined  to 
do  without  them,  the  plutocrats  threw  him  overboard  also, 
and  put  on  the  throne  a  man  right  after  tlieir  own  heart. 

If  Danton,  the  patriot,  had  been  spared  to  France,  affairs 
might  have  taken  a  very  different  turn. 

Bonaparte  —  to  whom  patriotism  was  an  unknown  senti- 
ment, who  preferred  himself  to  all  humanity  —  would  very 
likely  have  been  unnecessary  and  im])ossible  ;  France,  in 
that  case,  would  not  have   been  seduced   by  the  "  glory " 


220       THE  PRESENT   TRAXSITION  STA  TE.      [1794- 


which  he  dangled  before  its  eyes,  nor  would  the  immense 
forces  which  the  Revolution  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
leader  of  France  have  been  used  to  drench  Europe  in  blood. 

The  revolutions  of  1830  and  1S48  would  then  have  been 
avoided. 

The  Church  and  State  would  have  remained  separate  in 
France. 

Paris  would  not  have  been  demoralized  by  the  nephew 
into  a  city  of  mere  pleasure,  and  that  of  the  lowest  and 
vilest  pleasures. 

France  might  by  this  time  have  solved  the  social  problem, 
instead  of  being  divided  into  two  hostile  camps  ready  to 
tear  each  other  to  pieces. 

Events  in  Great  Britain,  even,  might  have  taken  a  very 
different  turn.  The  great  Chartist  party  collapsed,  because 
the  many  small  tradesmen  and  middle-class  men  that  com- 
posed it  got  scared  by  the  revolution  that  so  miexpectedly 
broke  out  in  Paris  in  1848  ;  and  if  that  party  had  succeeded 
in  its  demands,  who  can  tell  how  much  more  advanced 
Great  Britain  might  now  be  ? 

*         *         * 

One  of  Danton's  noblest  disciples,  Roussclin  de  Saint-Albin, 
strenuously  attempted,  after  the  revolution  in  1830,  to  infuse 
his  master's  spirit  into  the  victorious  bourgeoisie.  He  held 
aloft  before  their  eyes  their  great  mission  to  direct  all  social 
activities  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  society.  He  even 
tried  to  persuade  Louis  Philippe  to  forego  the  -civil  list. 
But  the  bourgeoisie  would  not  hear  any  nonsense  about  its 
"  mission."  On  the  contrary,  corruption  now  became  a 
system  with  them,  and  Saint-Albin  finally  ceased  his  efforts 
in  1838. 

For  the  last  time  this  must  be  insisted  upon  (if  for  no 
other  reason,  simply  in  order  to  explain  the  hatred  and 
resentment  which  the   French  working-classes    feel   toward 


I886.J  FOUND    WANTING.  221 

them)  :  that  the  French  bourgeoisie,  the  French  plutocrats, 
have  been  in  e\-ery  way  the  worst  of  any  country.  Not 
alone  have  they  been  more  neglectful  of  their  duties  than 
any  other  middle  classes,  but  they  have  continued  tj  ll.e 
present  day  the  fraudulent  and  swindling  operations  with 
which  they  commenced    their  career.  The    reason 

why  Edouard  Drumont's  book,  La  France  Jiiive  {The 
"yezi's  of  France),  has  been  so  popular,  that  about  a  hun- 
dred editions  were  published  in  one  year,  is,  that  it  is  a 
revelation  of  the  financial  rascalities  of  the  French  "  Jews," 
whether  Christian,  Hebrew,  or  Infidel. 

This  "  Jewish  "  talent  of  theirs  has  made  them  try  to 
impose  on  the  nation  in  another  matter,  —  that  of  taxation. 
The  plutocrats  of  all  countries  have  tried,  l)y  the  trickery  of 
indirect  taxation,  to  escape  their  just  share  of  the  public 
burdens ;  but  the  French  bourgeoisie  have  been  much 
smarter   and   bolder    in    that    respect.  Before    the 

Revolution,  as  we  know,  the  clergy  and  nobles  were  ex- 
empt from  taxation,  which  fell  with  crushing  force  on  the 
rest  of  the  nation,  particularly  the  peasants.  It  is  a  com- 
monplace to  say  that  this  was  the  principal  grievance  at 
the  time.  But  the  Revolution  has  certainly  not  diminished 
taxation  —  far  from  it.  There  is  probably  no  nation  to 
whom  taxes  are  so  burdensome  as  to  the  French.  The  rich 
middle  classes  have  done  all  they  could  in  order  to  enjoy 
the  former  immunity  of  clergy  and  nobles,  and  have  fancied 
they  could  effect  this,  and  throw  the  load  especially  on  the 
work-people  of  the  cities,  by  an  indirect  tax  called  the  octroi. 

This  is  an  impost  levied  on  nearly  all  articles  of  consump- 
tion and  prime  necessity  on  entering  the  cities  and  towns. 
It  was  known  during  the  ancient  regime,  abolished  by 
the  Revolution,  resurrected  by  the  plutocrats  in  1 79<S, 
and  has  been  continued  ever  since,  except  at  very  sliurt 
intervals    in    revolutionary    times,    when    the    masses    had 


222       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.     [1794- 

power.  For  Paris  this  impost  amounts  to  seventy  francs 
($14)  per  head  yearly.  Every  workingman  who  has  a  wife 
and  two  chiklren  to  support,  and  who,  I  shall  assume,  has 
an  annual  income  of  two  thousand  francs  ($400),  pays  in 
indirect  taxes  {exclusive  of  his  share  of  the  custom  duties) 
four  hundred  francs  ($80)  a  year,  or  hventy  per  cent  of  his 
income.  A  bourgeois,  on  the  other  hand,  who  from  some 
light  work  has  the  same  income,  and  lives  on  that,  and  in 
addition  enjoys  a  similar  revenue  from  land,  without  any 
toil  at  all,  pays,  on  this  second  revenue,  taxes  amounting 
only  to  ninety  francs  ($18),  ox  four  and  a  lialf  per  cent. 

Yet  the  plutocrats  have  hugely  deceived  themselves,  for 
this  "octroi"  tax  is  the  principal  reason  why  the  Parisian 
workingmen  are  paid  comparatively  high  wages.  W'ere 
the  tax  abolished,  undoubtedly  their  wages  would,  under  our 
present  system,  go  down  corres})ondingly. 

It  is  well  to  again  observe  that  there  never  has  been  a 
pooj'-iaza  in  France.  Louise  Michel,  the  anarchist  woman, 
some  years  ago  went  to  London  to  agitate  among  the  work- 
ing classes.  Her  stay  was  ver}-  short,  probably  because  she 
could  not  speak  a  word  of  English.  But  the  story  went, 
that  she  left  precipitately  as  soon  as  she  was  told  that  they 
had  a  poor-law  in  England,  such  as  it  is. 

It  can  be  said  of  the  plutocrats  of  all  countries,  that  they 
have  been  weighed  in  the  balance  and  everywhere  found 
wanting.  Nowhere  have  they  paid  the  least  attention  to 
their  duties  as  rulers,  but  everywhere  they  have  used  the 
opportunities  which  their  rule  gave  them  to  farther  their 
])rivate  interests  exclusively.  That  is  so  well  shown  by  that 
eminently  middle-class,  or  plutocrat,  institution,  the  public 
debts.  During  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  State  was 

in  extraordinary  need  of  funds,  the  rulers  —  the  nobles  and 
clergy  —  often  put  their  hands  into  their  own  pockets,  and 
gave  the  needful  amount  to  the  State  is  a  present.    Now  the 


1886.]  FOUND    WANTING.  223 

public  dol)t  of  I'"rance  is  immense  ;  indeed,  threatening  tlie 
State  with  bankruptcy.  This  debt  is  all  due  to  French  citi- 
zens, to  persons  of  the  middle  classes.  Whenever  the  State 
needs  more  funds,  either  for  a  war  or  public  works,  these 
middle  classes  are  ever  ready,  ay,  anxious,  to  put  their 
hands  in  their  pockets,  and  loan  their  money  to  the  State. 
The  ruling  middle  classes  have  so  arranged  matters  that  they 
can  make  these  loans  at  highly  usurious  rates ;  for  instance, 
in  1 87 1  they  handed  over  to  the  State  eighty  francs,  and 
received  in  return  a  bond  for  a  hundred  francs.  Thus  they 
live  luxuriously,  and  hope  to  go  on  living  forever,  on  incomes 
found  for  them  by  their  poor  fellow-citizens. 

But  it  will  not  last  forever.  There  is  the  handwriting  on 
the  wall,  —  a  handwriting  people  now  commence  to  de- 
cipher. The  very  forces  that  have  brought  this  capitalist 
system  to  its  height  are  now  seen  at  work  tiudcrniiniug  it. 

The  plutocrats  were  raised  to  supreme  power  because 
they  had  a  specific  mission  to  fulfil.  They  have  fulfilled  it : 
they  have  increased  production  and  productivity  immensely. 
Though  their  motives  have  been  the  meanest  and  most 
selfish,  yet  they  have  really  raised  society  up  on  a  higher 
plane.  It  is  by  the  wage- system  and  eouipetition  that  they 
have  been  able  to  do  this.  But  now,  when  society  no  longer 
needs  their  activity,  when  productivity  is  increased  suffi- 
ciently for  all  social  wants,  precisely  now  tliis  wage-system 
and  competition  are  becoming  more  harmful  than  useful. 

And  it  comes  about  in  this  way  :  The  plutocrats  are  our 
capitalist  classes,  an  industrial,  commercial,  and  moneyed 
aristocracy,  which  possesses  all  means  of  production  ;  the 
work-people,  on  the  other  hand,  —  the  great  bulk  of  the  com- 
munity, —  possess,  as  a  rule,  nothing  but  their  naked  labor, 
their  labor-power.  In  order  to  live,  the  latter  are  therefore 
under  the  necessity  of  offering  this  labor-power  to  the 
possessing  classes  on  such  terms  as  the  state  of  the  labor- 


224       T^fl^  PRESEXr  TRANSITION  STATE.      fi794- 

market  may  allow  them  to  ask,  and  of  accepting  employ- 
ment on  such  terms  as  these  classes  consent  to  grant  them. 
These  terms  —  in  other  words,  the  wages  they  receive  —  arc, 
as  statistics  assure  us,  on  an  average  about  one-half  of  the 
value  which  their  labor  really  creates.  The  wage-system, 
then,  really  means  that  the  capitalist  classes  allow  work- 
l)cople  to  labor,  say,  five  hours  daily  for  themselves,  on  con- 
dition that  they  will  labor  other  five  hours  daily  fo'r  their 
masters  gratis.  This,   be   it   understood,   does    not 

mean  that  the  other  half  goes  all  into  the  pockets  of  tlie 
employers  —  far  from  it ;  it  is  distributed  among  land-own- 
ers, capitalists,  commission-merchants,  and  others,  as  well. 
But  this  gratuitous,  unpaid  labor  constitutes  what  properly 
is  called  pi-ofits,  —  those  profits  on  account  of  which  exclu- 
sively manufacturers  and  the  other  "  gentlemen  at  large  " 
consent  to  produce  and  do  business  at  all.  It  is  this  profit- 
grinding  element  wliich  is  the  economic  foundation  of  our 
present  society,  and  of  society  in  France  since  the  Revolution. 

So  far,  the  wage-system  is  an  injury  solely  to  the  work- 
people. 

But  it  is  evident,  that  since  the  bulk  of  the  community, 
the  work-people,  receive  in  wages  but  half  of  what  they 
produce,  they  cannot,  with  tlieir  best  will,  buy  back  what 
they  produce ;  and  the  land-owners,  employers,  and  capital- 
ists, on  the  other  hand,  who  pocket  the  other  half,  cannot, 
with  their  best  will,  consume  it  all :  hence  that  curious  i)]ie- 
nomenon  called  '■'■  over-pi-odiiction^'  —  a  phenomenon  which 
the  world  has  never  witnessed  until  our  days.  It  means,  a.; 
is  well  known,  that  there  are  large  amounts  of  goods  ac- 
cumulated which  they  who  have  money  do  not  want,  and 
which  they  who  do  want  them  cannot  buy,  for  lack  of 
means.  The  above  explains  it  all :  it  fiilly  explains 

why  there  are,  on  the  one  hand,  vast  amounts  of  goods 
heaped  up  in  the  warehouses  for  which  there  is  no  effective 


1886.1  foUaXd  wanting.  225 

demand,  and  vast  amounts  of  capital  lying  idle,  on  the 
other  hand,  —  capital  that  should  be  used  in  buying  up  these 
accumulated  goods,  but  is  not  so  used. 

Then,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  this  "  over-production  "  some- 
how, it  is,  that  the  plutocrats  of  all  countries  are  crying  for 
and  hunting  after  foi'cign  markets.  Therefore  it  is,  that 
France  has  taken  possession,  first  of  Algiers,  then  of  Tunis, 
then  of  Madagascar  and  Tonkin.  This  cry  and  this  chase 
are  in  themselves  signs  that  the  present  system  is  tottering. 
These  foreign  markets,  however,  must,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  soon  dry  up,  —  are,  in  fact,  drying  up.  Then  this 
capitalist  system  must  fall. 

Tills  changes  the  wage-system  from  a  workingman^ s  ques- 
tion into  a  social  question.  The  wage-syston  is,  in  other 
words,  becoming  a  social  curse. 

That  is  why  people  of  all  classes  are  beginning  to  con- 
demn it.  To  cite  but  one  instance  :  M.  Ch.  Gide,  professor 
of  political  economy  at  the  University  of  Montpellier,  opened 
a  Congress  of  French  Co-operators  at  Lyons  in  1886  with 
an  address  on  the  theme  :  The  wage-system  is  an  inferior 
condition  of  labor  and  sliould  be  abolished. 

It  would  be  equally  easy  to  show  that  free  competition, 
private  enterprise,  which  has  done  so  much  for  the  upbuild- 
ing of  this  capitalist  system,  is  now  also  hurrying  it  on  to  its 
doom.  By  that  miserable  secrecy  with  which  it  surrounds 
all  production  and  enterprises,  when  success  precisely  de- 
pends on  what  others  produce  and  do,  competition  is,  in 
fact,  the  principal  cause  of  the  crises  that  periodically  over- 
whelm us. 

It  is  therefore  as  clear  as  any  thing  in  the  future  well  can 
be,  that  this  capitalist  system,  introduced  in  France  by  the 
Revolution,  will  before  long,  unless  forestalled,  end  in  a 
catastrophe  and  a  crash. 

But  it  ib  certainly  not  our  ruling  classes,  the  plutocrats, 


226       THE  TRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

who  will  prevent  the  crash.  Yet  that  is  what  is  fondly 

hoped  by  the  Positivists,  the  disciples  of  Auguste  Comte. 
They  see  clearly  enough  that  the  present  system  is  but  a 
transitional  system,  and  that  a  new  social  order  is  inevitable  ; 
but  they  imagine,  as  has  been  said,  that  the  plutocrats  — 
the  great  bankers,  merchants,  and  manufacturers  —  will  also, 
under  that  new  order,  be  the  "  chiefs  of  industry  :  "  that 
they  will,  indeed,  have  much  more  power  and  muclv  more 
wealth  than  now ;  but  they  also  fancy  that  these  chiefs  will 
be  sufficiently  moralized  by  that  time  to  apply  their  wealth 
to  social  uses,  to  become  truly  fathers  of  their  people,  and 
extirpate  all  misery  and  pauperism. 

Our  plutocrats  be  "  moralized  "  !  There  is  absolutely  not 
a  particle  of  evidence  for  any  such  change,  not  merely  of 
heart,  but  of  their  very  nature.  There  was  a  time  when  this 
might  have  been  hoped  for  :  that  was  when  their  itXiow -bour- 
geois, the  Jacobins,  were  exemplifying  Fraternity.  But  now 
quite  another  sentimenWias  for  a  century  petrified  not  merely 
their  hearts,  but  their  heads,  —  the  sentiment  of  Imiividiial- 
ism.  It  has  filled  them  with  the  delusion  that  they  are  born 
into  this  world  each  for  the  sake  of  himself;  twisted  their 
brains  so  that  they  verily  think  that  a  man  is  a  kind  of 
monad,  governed  by  independent  laws  inherent  in  himself, 
and  that  therefore  it  is  the  only  proper  thing  for  the  cheeky 
to  elbow  aside  the  really  able  man,  who,  because  able,  is 
modest.  That  sentiment  has  made  them  eminently  success- 
ful in  working  for  their  own  benefit ;  but  just  for  that  reason 
they  have  become  unfit,  and  every  year  renders  them  more 
and  more  unfit,  to  work  for  the  benefit  of  society. 

The  French  bourgeoisie  has  practically  proven  this  by  the 
way  they  have  received  certain  proposals  by  Godin,  of  the 
Familistcre  of  Guise.  M.  Godin  is  purely  a  capitalist  by  sen- 
timent, but  he  resembles  the  Jacobins.  He  reasons  exactly 
as  if  he  lived   in    1  793,  and  was  a  member  of  tlie   Moun- 


i886.]  PRESENT  TENDENCIES.  22/ 

tain ;  but,  in  addition,  he  sees  clearly  enough  that  a  catas- 
trophe is  approaching,  and  is  anxious  that  his  fcllow-caijital- 
ists  should  forestall  it.  He  therefore  proposes  that  the  State 
shall,  on  the  death  of  proprietors,  confiscate  part  of  their 
fortunes,  —  a  small  part  of  small  fortunes,  but  an  ever-in- 
creasing proportion  as  they  are  larger,  until  it  be  one-half  of 
the  large  fortunes.  In  that  way  the  ruling  class  might,  un- 
doubtedly, stave  off  the  crash.  If  the  State  used  these  im- 
mense sums  that  it  in  that  way  would  become  possessed  of, 
in  abolishing  pauperism  and  improving  the  lot  of  the  poor, 
it  might  do  away  with  the  worst  effects  of  the  wage-system 
and  competition,  for  these  Godin  does  not  dream  of  abol- 
ishing. But  he  preaches  in  the  wilderness.  These  fellow- 
bourgeois  of  his  think  only  of  clutchi  ig  all  they  can,  and 
"after  us  the  deluge  !  " 

*         *         * 

But  it  is  probable  Evolution  may  forestall  the  catastrophe. 
So  it  was,  it  will  be  remembered,  in  tlie  French  Revolution. 
The  middle  classes  were  in  supreme  power  before  the  crash, 
—  that  is,  before  the  fall  of  the  feudal  system  occurred  ;  and 
now,  after  having  explained  the  French  Revolution  l)y  an 
hypothesis,  this  explanation,  if  it  be  the  true  one,  ought  in 
its  turn  to  help  us  to  unravel  the  plot  of  the  drama  of  the 
future. 

The  outcome  of  the  present  transition  state  (brought  about 
in  France  by  the  Revolution)  is,  then,  to  be  a  new  social 
order,  corresponding  to,  but  on  a  far  higher  plane  than,  the 
Middle  Ages.  It  will  be  a  social  order  of  system,  iniify,  and 
with  co-operation  in  a  mucli  higher  form  than  before.  Are 
things  around  us  drifting  towards  such  a  social  order? 

We  may,  it  seems  to  me,  easily  enough  discern  two  lines 
of  unconscious  tendencies  in  society  around  us,  —  tendencies 
which,  being  the  workings  of  evolution,  are  not  voluntary,  not 
by  choice,  but  thoroughly  spontaneous,  both  of  them. 


228        THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

One  is  a  movement  by  individuals  of  all  classes,  by  wage- 
earners  as  well  as  by  capitalists. 

The  other  is  manifested  by  an  increased  activity  on  the 
part  of  society  in  its  organized  form ;  by  the  State,  in  other 
words. 

Of  the  movements  by  individuals,  the  most  significant 
is  that  towards  production  on.  a  large  scale.  By  "  produc- 
tion "  should  also  be  understood  transportation  and  com- 
merce, for  they  add  value  to  the  product,  just  as  well  as  does 
the  labor  of  the  operatives  on  raw  materials.  All  that  is 
necessary  here  is  to  note  this  tendency,  for  all  admit  that 
production  everywhere  —  the  most  trivial  as  well  as  the  most 
important  —  is  being  concentrated  in  the  hands  of  richer  and 
richer  employers,  of  larger  and  larger  corporations. 

But  there  is  one  feature  of  this  concentration  that  deserves 
special  mention  because  it  is  novel,  and  as  yet,  it  seems,  con- 
fined to  the  United  States,  where  the  capitalist  system  is 
more  unfettered  than  anywhere  else.  It  is  what  is  called 
the  Trust.  This  is  monopoly  in  its  most  concentrated  form. 
Suppose  the  presidents  of  all  the  incorporated  companies  in 
a  given  branch  of  industry  in  the  whole  country  assembled, 
and  one  of  their  number  in  whom  they  all  have  perfect  trust 
—  hence  the  name  —  selected  to  perform  the  function  of 
absolute  manager,  with  power  to  determine,  autocratically, 
h(jw  much  each  company  is  to  produce,  and  consequently 
its  share  in  the  proceeds,  and  you  have  the  "  trust."  It 
differs  from  a  "  pool "  in  this,  that  none  of  the  parties  can 
withdraw.  The  individuality  which  the  law  confers  on  each 
company  by  the  Act  of  Incorporation  is  merged  in  the 
"  trust,"  over  which  the  State  has  not  the  least  control ;  in- 
deed, the  whole  arrangement  is  kept  as  perfect  a  secret,  as 
far  as  the  public  is  concerned,  as  possible.  Such  a 

secret  "  trust  "  has  been  in  existence  in  the  United  States  for 
several  years,  and   the  public    has    been    made  to  feel  its 


1886.1  PRESENT  TENDENCIES.  229 

tremendous  power  ;  to  wit,  the  Standard  Oil  Company.  This 
institution  is  exactly  such  an  absolute  union  of  innumerable 
smaller  incorporated  oil  companies.  But  lately,  it  is  said, 
the  rubber  industries  of  the  country  came  together  a  short 
time  ago  in  New- York  City  and  formed  a  similar  "  trust."  It 
is  further  said  that  the  pork- packing  industries  and  the  cattle- 
ranches  out  West  are  contemplating  to  do  likewise.  It  is 
easy  to  see,  that,  when  these  "  trusts  "  become  general,  —  and 
that  is  only  a  question  of  very  short  time,  —  they  will  revolu- 
tionize our  present  system,  for  they  mean  the  destruction  of 
competition,  which  then  will  be  utilized  simply  to  crush  their 
weaker  rivals,  what  precisely  the  Standard  Oil  Company  has 
been  doing.  Some  of  our  newspapers,  on  getting  wind  of 
these  "  trusts,"  have  become  alarmed,  seeing  in  them  terrible 
future  dangers  to  the  State.  And  that,  indeed,  they  would 
be  ;  they  would  institute  a  new  slavery,  the  most  formidable 
slavery  that  ever  existed,  —  if  evolution  would  stop  there. 
But  it  will  not.  That  is  why  this  movement  is  at  bottom  an 
unconscious  one  :  the  capitalists  engaged  in  it  are,  uncon- 
sciously, the  greatest  revolutionists  in  the  world. 

Now,  this  concentration  shows  us  what  is  going  to  be  one 
important  feature  of  the  new  social  order,  —  shows  us  tliat 
pi-odiiction  on  the  largest  possible  scale  will  be  the  only 
practical  mode  of  production  in  the  future. 

Next,  we  have  in  the  English  co-operative  stores  the  most 
successful  efforts  in  the  same  direction  on  the  part  of  work- 
people. They  are  very  suggestive  experiments  in  voluntary 
co-operation,  resulting  directly  from  this  concentration  of 
production  just  spoken  of,  necessitating,  as  it  does,  huge 
camps  of  operatives.  These  co-operative  distributive  soci- 
eties have  from  eight  to  nine  hundred  thousand  members, 
and  their  annual  sales  already  amount  to  nearly  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  million  dollars.  The  noble  founders  of  this 
sort   of  co-oi)eratiou    have,   undoubtedly,  wholly  failed    in 


230       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

their  original  object,  in  the  real  object  they  aimed  at,  which 
was  to  entirely  revolutionize  society  by  putting  an  end  to 
the  wage-system ;  for  they  have  wholly  failed  in  making 
their  followers  interested  in  co-operative  production,  —  the? 
principal  part  of  their  scheme.  One  of  these  founders, 
the  venerable  Lloyd  Jones,  died  a  short  time  ago  of  a  broken 
heart,  from  having  to  admit  that  nearly  all  tlie  nine  hundred 
thousand  "  co-operators "  entirely  lack  the  co-operative 
spirit,  and  are  anxious  only  for  becoming  small  capitalists. 
The  wonderful  success  of  co-operative  distribution  is,  never- 
theless, exceedingly  important  as  a  phase  of  the  general 
movement,  and  points  to 

Distribution  on  the  largest  possible  scale  as  the  only 
natural  mode  of  distribution  for  the  future. 

Again  :  we  should  note  the  various  attempts  that  have  of 
late  been  made,  mainly  in  England,  in  co-operative  farming 
by  agricultural  laborers,  and.,  on  the  other  hand,  the  immense 
"  Bonanza  "  farms  in  our  newer  States  and  Territories.  They 
show  us  that  agriculture  is  subject  to  the  same  development  as 
other  industries  :  the  latter,  that  machinery  can  be  as  much 
utilized  here  as  elsewhere  ;  and  the  former,  that  agriculturists, 
though  the  most  individualistic  of  all  classes,  are  as  fit  to 
co-operate  as  other  workers.  The  English  "  Association 
P\armers,"  as  they  call  themselves,  though  generally  work- 
ing under  abnormally  unpromising  conditions,  seem  to  be 
satisfied  with  their  success  so  far,  and  their  successful  ex- 
ample can  hardly  fail  to  have  a  great  effect  on  their  brethren 
in  other  countries. 

Our  insurance  companies  may  be  looked  upon  as  instinc- 
tive attempts  by  the  possessing  classes  in  a  chaotic,  anarchic 
state  of  society,  such  as  is  tlie  one  in  which  we  are  living,  to 
realize  interdependence,  with  all  its  beneficent  consequences. 
Especially  are  our  prosperous  life-insurance  companies  most 
significant   and  suggestive   concerns,  as  showing  how,  even 


(886.]  PRESENT  TENDENCIES.  23 1 

in  such  an  intlividualistic  society  as  ours,  robust,  prudent, 
and  temperate  middle-class  men  can  be  made  to  contribute, 
of  their  own  accord,  to  support  the  offspring  and  the  de- 
pendants of  the  weak,  reckless,  and  dissolute,  —  for  that  is 
what  they  virtually  are  made  to  do. 

As  such  insurance  companies  for  work-people  the  trades- 
unions  of  Great  Britain  can  be  considered.  They  have 
undoubtedly  done  labor  a  great  service.  It  is  they  to  whom 
it  is  due  that  the  working-hours  have  been  reduced.  So  far 
as  it  is  true,  what  is  alleged,  that  the  worker's  condition  is 
improved  as  to  amount  of  wages  compared  with  his  condi- 
tion fifty  years  ago  (what  is  only  true  in  regard  to  the  elite 
of  the  workingmen),  it  is  also  these  trades-unions  who  have 
effected  that  increase.  But,  having  accomplished  this,  the 
trades-unions  have  certainly  got  into  a  rut,  and  seem  per- 
fectly self-satisfied,  —  satisfied  with  what  they  have  achieved, 
and,  what  is  worse,  satisfied  with  their  position  as  wage-serfs. 
They  seem  to  have  lost  vitality,  and  to  only  want  to  leave 
things  as  they  are.  Yet,  however  selfish  and  narrow  they 
may  be,  they  cannot  help  all  the  time  being  of  service  by 
the  very  fact  of  being  so  closely  associated  ;  they  naturally 
drill  their  members  in  association  and  co-operation.  I  have 
a  deep  conviction  that  the  trades-unions  of  Great  Britain 
and  the  United  States  '  will  play  an  important  part  in  the 
social  evolution,  as  already  the  "  Syndical  Chambers  "  of  the 
workers  are  doing  in  P>ance.  In  the  latter  country  the  Ma- 
chinists' Unions  are,  with  the  aid  of  a  loan  by  the  Govern- 
ment of  $1,200,000,  about  to  form  a  vast  co-operative  society 
for  producing  machinery,  used  in  the  textile  manufactures. 

This,  then,  to  sum  up,  is  the  outcome  of  the  spontaneous, 
unconscious  activity  of  individuals  in  association  or  corpora- 
tion :  that  they  gather  together  the  working-classes  in  huge 

■  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  trades-unions  pf  the  United  States  have,  of  late,  taken 
a  very  active  part  in  radical  politics, 


233       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

armies,  and  teach  them  interdependence,  and  especially 
that  they  more  and  more  absorb  and  make  impossible  all 
inilustrial  activity  by  isolated  individuals. 

I  call  these  movements  "  unconscious  "  as  well  as  spon- 
taneous ;  for,  while  the  individuals  in  association  and  corpo- 
ration are  conscious  enough  as  far  as  their  immediate  private, 
personal  interest  is  concerned,  yet  they  are  perfectly  uncon- 
scious all  the  time  of  their  associated  corporate  actions  and 
their  consequences. 

Now  we  pass  over  to  the  other  line  of  spontaneous,  un- 
conscious tendencies,  —  the  activities  of  the  State. 

The  State  itself  is  a  j^rofound  fact  of  our  spontaneous, 
unconscious  association.  The  State  is  the  organized  soci- 
ety, the  as  yet  imperfectly  organized  society.  The  tendencies 
of  which  we  now  are  going  to  speak  are  really  efforts  towards 
organizing  society  more  and  more  closely ;  that  is,  towards 
making  the  State  more  and  more  perfect. 

There  was  a  time  when  it  was  doubtful  wliether  the  State 
or  the  Church  was  going  to  be  the  form  in  which  the  spon- 
taneous association  of  men  was  to  be  embodied.  The 
Power  behind  Evolution  long  ago  decided  in  favor  of  the 
State,  and  relegated  the  Church  to  the  condition  of  a  merely 
voluntary  association  everywhere,  practically  speaking. 

The  first  of  these  tendencies  manifests  itself  in  the 

Post-office  Department,  with  its  important  branched  of 
banking  and  expressing.  This  is,  in  all  civilized  countries, 
the  first  industrial  function  the  State  has  taken  upon  itself; 
and  it  has  performed  that  function  so  well,  that  none  could  Ije 
found  fool  enough  to  vote  it  back  to  the  hands  of  private 
corporations.  If  two  or  tlirec  companies  performed  the 
service  in  the  United  States,  does  any  one  believe  that  he 
could  send  a  postal-card  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco 
(juickly  and  safely  for  one  cent? 


I886.J  PRESE.VT   TIiXDEXClES.  233 

We  may  note,  in  passing,  that  the  side  functions  above 
mentioned  are  suggestive  germs  of  future  important  activities. 

Next  look  at  the  National  Telegraph  Service.  Is  it  not 
suggestive  that  the  country  of  Herbert  Spencer,  the  home 
of  the  "let-alone  "  doctrine,  has  been  so  vigorously  pursuing 
the  contrary  course  in  practice  as  to  nationalize  the  tele- 
graph system?  The  advantages  thereby  gained  are  easily 
seen  by  comparing  Great  Britain  with  the  United  States, 
where  the  telegraph  is  yet  a  private  monopoly.  E^ven  before 
the  sixpenny  telegrams  were  introduced,  the  former  country 
sent  annually  four  times  as  many  despatches  at  half  the 
price. 

Consider  now  Public  Education.  There  the  United 
States  is  undoubtedly  yet  ahead  of  England.  Her  common- 
school  system,  spanning  the  whole  course  from  primary 
schools  to  the  universities,  is  justly  famous  ;  and  the  public 
spirit,  branding  the  rich  families  who  keep  their  children 
away  from  them  as  unpatriotic,  is  admirable.  But  as  the 
system,  unfortunately,  is  not  yet  national,  only  a  section  of 
the  country  enjoys  its  blessings.  England,  however,  has 
undoubtedly  since  1870  made  giant  progress  in  this  direction, 
and  will,  it  seems,  soon  surpass  the  United  States  by  insti- 
tuting National  Board  schools  rivalling  the  latter's  connnon 
schools,  and  where  children  will  get  one  meal  a  day  at  least. 
Ah  !  Spencer  is  right  in  looking  on  the  institution  of  these 
Board  schools  as  the  greatest  blow  to  his  individualistic  phi- 
losophy, for  it  means  adopting  the  true  principle,  the  corner- 
stone of  public  responsibility,  that  the  education  of  children 
is  of  more  concern  to  the  community  than  to  parents  ;  or,  as 
Danton  said,  that  ''  Children  belong  to  the  nation  rather 
than  to  parents." 

The  English  Factory  Acts  denote  another  most  interesting 
step  in  social  evolution.  The  joint  emi)ire  of  the  aristocracy 
and  plutocracy  there  ceased  by  tlie  Reform  Act  of  1832, 


234       TJ/E  J'RESEA'T  TKAAS/TW.V  STATE.      [1794- 

whcn  the  latter  acquired  undivided,  sui)reme  power.  They 
could  act  pretty  much  as  they  pleased,  and  were  not  \ery 
favorably  disposed  toward  the  working-classes,  as  the  new 
poor-law  showed  ;  but  when  a  real  nobleman,  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, introduced  his  Factory  Bills,  though  the  plutocrats, 
with  the  Quaker  John  Bright  at  their  head,  for  a  long  time 
fought  successfully  against  them,  yet  they  had  at  last  to 
give  in,  had  to  thwart  their  onm  most  cherished  ideals,  and 
pass  them,  as  well  as  the  laws  against  overloading  of  ships. 

Here  our  splendid  Bureaus  for  the  Statistics  of  Labor, 
with  which  no  other  country  has  any  thing  to  compare, 
constitute  a  giant  step  toward  the  future  organization  of 
labor. 

As  to  the  British  Railioay  System,  it  is  noteworthy  that  Sir 
Bernhard  Samuelson,  in  a  recent  report  of  his  to  the  Asso- 
ciation of  Chambers  of  Commerce  of  the  United  Kingdom, 
concludes  in  favor  of  State  monopoly  of  the  railway  traffic. 

And  our  Interstate  Commerce  Act  of  1887  goes  a  long 
way  toward  actually  bringing  that  about  here  in  the  United 
States.  I  wonder  if  it  was  by  a  mere  oversight  that  steam- 
ships were  not  brought  within  the  control  of  the  Union,  as 
well  as  railroads. 

The  Municipalization  of  Land —  that  is  to  say,  the  com- 
pulsory sale  of  land  by  landlords  to  municipalities  —  has  been 
for  some  years  a  pet  idea  with  English  Radicals,  and  will,  un- 
doubtedly, be  one  of  the  first  measures  to  be  passed  as  soon 
as  Irish  home-rule  has  been  granted ;  and,  when'  accom- 
plished, it  very  likely  may  be  the  greatest  step,  so  far  taken, 
in  social  evolution.  But  I  also  hope,  to  be  sure,  that  by  that 
time  the  private  experiments  in  co-operative  farming,  which 
has  been  spoken  of,  will  have  attained  such  importance,  that, 
upon  the  municipalization  (or  nationalization)  of  the  land, 
it  will  be  handed  over  to  large  bodies  of  agricultural  laborers, 
to  be  by  them  cultivated  co-operatively  on  a  large  scale. 


1886.1  PRESEiVT  TENDENCIES.  235 

I  have  also  called  these  activities  "  unconscious ;  "  for, 
though  "practical"  politicians  are  conscious  enough  when 
they  concern  themselves  with  the  expediency  of  any  of  such 
measures,  yet  they  are  absolutely  ignorant,  or  at  least  care- 
less, of  the  fact  (with  which  Spencer  also  never  tires  of  re- 
proaching them)  that,  in  every  one  of  such  measures  they 
pass,  they  are  establishing  principles,  —  principles  -which,  by 
their  irresistib'le  momentum,  are  sure  to  lead  to  new  types  of 
social  organization. 

Now,  is  it  not  easy  to  perceive  that  these  activities  of  the 
State  tend  very  strongly  to  more  and  more  curtail,  contract, 
abridge,  the  proprietary  sphere  of  individuals,  and  develop 
and  strengthen  the  collective  will?  Certainly  they  do; 
and  that  is  what  Spencer,  in  his  pamphlet  The  Man  vs. 
The  State,  so  much  bewails.  But  that  is  just  what,  as  we 
saw  in  Chap.  I.,  has  been  the  constant  tendency  of  our 
civilization,  that  in  which  our  civilization  may  be  said  to 
consist.  At  first  a  given  individual  was  exceedingly  power- 
ful, comparatively  almighty ;  by  and  by  that  power  has  been 
taken  from  him  and  devolved  on  the  State,  ^^'hat,  however, 
is  most  important  and  suggestive  is,  that  this  tendency  should 
manifest  itself  so  strongly  and  decidedly  now,  in  the  transi- 
tion era  in  which  we  are  living,  when  a  permanent  new  social 
order  is  upon  us. 

In  the  evolution  of  which  the  above  are  simply  prominent 
features  (to  which  the  reader  can  add  such  others  as  strike 
him)  everyone  is  a  partaker ;  every  active  individual,  wit- 
tingly or  unwittingly,  whether  he  likes  it  or  no,  contributes  to 
it,  either  as  the  member  of  some  association  or  other,  or,  at 
all  events,  as  a  contributor  to  the  public  opinion  which  directs 
the  State.  These  unconscious,  spontaneous  movements  from 
all  parts  of  the  social  circumference,  which  collectively  we 
may  call  the  "logic  of  events,"  will  irresistibly  lead  us  on, 


236       THE  PRESEXT   TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

first  to  a  certain  point  in  the  line  of  progress,  —  the  Coiniug 
Revolution,  —  and  thereupon  to  the  Neiu  Social  Order. 

But  this  —  that  the  affairs  of  men  have  once  for  all  got  an 
impetus  in  this  direction  —  is  not  all  there  is  of  evolution,  or 
even  the  most  prominent  feature  of  it,  as  Herbert  Spencer 
seems  to  think.  He  virtually  says  to  his  readers,  "  Let  us 
fold  our  hands  :  we  cannot  hurry  society  forward.  It  will  of 
itself  come  out  all  right  in  the  distant  future." 

The  point  is,  that  human  society  does  not  develop  quite 
the  same  as,  for  instance,  a  plant.  The  evolution  of  man 
needs  the  co-operation  of  men,  takes  place  by  the  conscious 
efforts  of  men.  And  it  so  happens  that  the  Power 

behind  Evolution  is  now  at  work  on  certain  minds  among  us. 
As  the  French  Revolution  was  made  in  the  minds  of  Danton 
and  his  contemporaries  before  1 7S9,  so  the  Coming  Revolu- 
tion is  now  being  prepared  among  us. 

This  is  a  movement  just  as  spontaneous  as  the  others  we 
have  spoken  of.  These  minds  are  twisted  in  a  certain  direc- 
tion, without  any  choice,  any  merit,  on  their  part ;  but,  in 
contradistinction  to  the  others,  they  are  conscious  actors. 
So  soon  as  they  are  aware  of  the  change  that  has  occurred 
in  them,  they  consciously  push  on  the  car  of  ])rogress,  often 
under  "great  sufferings,  often  sick  at  heart  from  lack  of 
sympathy. 

This  conscious  evolution  does  not  comprise  all  active  per- 
sons, like  the  former  movements.  There  are  some 
stui)id  men  in  the  world.  They  contribute  nothing  con- 
sciously to  the  solution  of  the  social  problem,  and  it  is  wasted 
labor  to  try  to  win  them  over.  As  Goethe  says  :  Mit  der 
Dummhcit  kdnip/en  Gottcr  selbst  vergebens  ("With  stupidity 
even  the  gods  contend  in  vain"). 

Then,  there  are  the  selfish  ones,  —  those  wlio  find  their 
advantage  in  the  present  anarchy,  and  olliers,  like  j)Oor 
clerks,  who  hoije,  some  time  or  other,  by  some  lucky  chance, 


1886.]  THE  MENTAL  REVOLUTION.  237 

to  become  tlieuiselves  rich,  so  that  they  in  turn  may  lord  it 
over  others ;  that  latter  class  is  especially  numerous  in  the 
United  States. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  vast  indolent  multitude  of  all  classes 
who  never  have  taken  the  initiative,  and  never  want  to ;  the 
multitude  that  have  blocked  the  way  for  so  many  noble  re- 
formers who,  contemplating  that  heavy,  inert  mass  before 
them,  and  despairing  how  to  move  it,  have  finally  died  of 
broken  hearts.  Let  us  never  reckon  on  their  co?isdous  assist- 
ance. Danton  knew  this.  That  is  the  reason  why  revolu- 
tions are  legitimate. 

For  the  Power  behind  Evolution  has  a  method  of  its  own 
in  dealing  with  man's  affairs.  It  irresistibly  pushes  us  all,  — 
the  stupid,  the  selfish,  the  indolent  rauldtude,  —  unwittingly 
and  unwillingly,  onward ;  or,  if  you  please,  lifts  us  all  up- 
wards. At  the  same  time,  it  raises  up  a  comparatively  few 
to  co-operate  with  itself,  and  througli  whom  it  acts.  These, 
then,  are  the  conscious  actors  in  the  evolution,  a  very  small 
class ;  for  while  that  Power  needs  men,  absolutely  cannot 
get  along  without  men,  it  requires  but  a  very  few. 

Discontent  is  the  means  it  makes  use  of  to  raise  up  and 
educate  its  co-laborers  ;  an  unselfish  discontent,  and  there- 
fore by  no  means  synonymous  with  unhappiness.  These  feel 
discontented  with  this  age  in  which  they  and  we  are  living, 
as  about  the  meanest  age  of  all,  with  its  organized  inclem- 
ency of  man  to  man ;  and  yet  they  may  feel  very  happy  in 
enjoying  consciousness  in  flesh  and  blood  just  now  when  we 
stand  on  the  threshold  of  the  most  glorious  of  ages.  This 
discontent  is  to  evolution  what  steam  is  to  the  engineer ;  it 
is  the  precursor  of  a  structural  change  ;  it  is  what  the  but- 
terfly may  be  supposed  to  feel  when  it  is  going  out  of  the 
chrysalis  state.  It  convinces  us  that  we  have  arrived  at  the. 
crisis. 

It  is  the  lack  of  this  discontent. that  is  the  great  defect  in 


238       THE  TRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.     [1794- 

Spenccr ;  //  is  the  laani  of  this  discontent  that  makes  him 
an  iiuiolent  optimist,  with  nothing  specific  to  suggest  /or  men 
to  do.  Our  philanthropists,  on  the  other  hand,  may 

be  said  to  have  a  surfeit  of  that  feehng ;  that  is  why  they 
always  impatiently  want  to  know,  "  What  shall  we  do  from 
this  didi^ forthtvith  to  change  things?"  They  are  right  as  to 
heart,  but  wrong  in  their  heads. 

Those  only  who  are  filled  with  both  discontent  and  right 
convictions  are  fit  to  be  true  co-workers  of  the  Power 
behind  Evolution ;  they  are  Victor  Hugo's  "  sagacious, 
serene,  and  profound  minds,"  who  at  length  have  truly  de- 
ciphered "God's  mysterious  text."  They  have  in  these 
days  the  same  important  function  to  perform  that  Mon- 
tesquieu, Diderot,  and  Rousseau  had  a  century  ago,  —  that 
of  putting  ideas  into  the  minds  of  the  people;  of  accom- 
plishing the  intellectual,  the  mental  revolution,  ///  the 
drains  of  the  active  part  of  nations.  But  just  in  propor- 
tion as  the  mental  revolution  is  complete,  will  all  danger 
of  a  sanguinary  crisis  be  averted,  —  that  is  one  of  the 
lessons  the  French  Revolution  should  have  taught  us. 

Again  :  just  like  the  mental  revolution  of  last  century 
will  the  one  now  to  be  accomplished  be  brought  about  by 
books ;  they  will  play  even  a  greater  role  now,  because  now 
everybody  reads. 

Who,  then,  are  the  men  with  discontent  and  right  con- 
victions? and  which  are  these  books? 

My  readers  who  have  followed  me  so  far  will  have  guessed 
that  I  refer  to  the  Collectivists  ;  not  Anarchists,  please  ob- 
serve, nor,  if  a  distinction  be  made.  Communists,  but  Col- 
lectivists, —  the  thinkers  who  inspire  themselves  from  the 
French  Collectivism  of  Saint-Simon  and  the  Ccrnian  Collec- 
tivism of  Karl  Marx,  and  who,  1  think,  will  work  out  a  third, 
complete  doctrine,  Angh-Sjxon  in  its  characteristics. 


i886.]  THE  MENTAL  REVOLUTION.  239 


That  which  distinguishes  the  above  writers  from  all  other 
social  innovators  is,  that  they  emphasize,  not  that  the  new 
social  order  ought  to  be  and  therefore  will  be,  but  that  it 
will  be  and  therefore  ought  to  be,  realized. 

Saint-Simonisni,  as  developed  by  Bazard  and  Enfantin, 
who  seem  to  me  almost  greater  than  the  master  they 
acknowledge,  owes  its  start  directly  to  the  impulse  of  the 
French  Revolution.  I  have  already,  in  Chap.  I.,  set  out 
Saint-Simon's  fruitful  conception  of  organic  and  critical 
periods  of  history.  Saint-Simonism,  furthermore,  insists  on 
the  fact,  that  in  the  march  of  humanity  the  circle  of  asso- 
ciation  goes  on  enlarging  unceasingly,  until  it  will  end  in 
universal  association.  That  is  to  say,  it  insists  that  the 
State  will  develop  into  an  association  exclusively  of  workers, 
of  useful  members ;  that  as  such  it  will  assume  the  owner- 
ship, the  office  of  a  trustee,  of  all  capital,  instead  of,  as  now, 
that  capital  being  the  private  property  of  individual  families  ; 
that  then  naturally  all  privileges  founded  on  birth  or  wealth 
will  disappear,  and  that  capacity  will  be  the  only  quality 
that  will  entitle  persons  to  dispose  of  and  use  this  capital. 
And  the  principal  merit  of  Saint-Simonism  is,  that  it  teaches 
that  this  development,  this  change,  will  not  be  brought  about 
because  human  intelligence  approves  of  it  and  resolves  on  it, 
but  that  its  raison  d'etre  is  the  Supreme  Will,  and  that,  as 
it  is  being  accomplished,  so  to  say,  of  itself,  the  human 
conscience  will,  little  by  little,  conform  itself  to  it,  and  bring 
itself  into  harmony  with  it.  Again  :  Saint-Simonism  drew 
attention  (as  I  have  done  in  the  preceding  pages)  to  the 
instinctive  tendencies  of  its  time,  which  pointed  to  order  and 
a  new  organization,  particularly  to  the  office  of  the  bankers, 
these  intermediaries  between  workers  needing  instruments 
of  labor,  and  the  possessors  of  such  instruments  not  know- 
ing how  to  use  them  or  caring  to  do  so. 

But  Samt-Simon  and  his  disciples  made  the  very  natural 


240       THE  TRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

mistake  of  assuming  that  their  time  was  the  commencement 
of  the  new  social  order.  It  is  the  great  merit  —  and  this 
has  been  the  great  mission  —  of  German  Colkciivism,  that  it 
has  made  clear  and  emphasized  that  this  is  a  transition  period. 
For  it  is  Karl  Marx,  the  most  prominent  exponent  of  Ger- 
man Socialism,  who  has  shown  us  the  workings  of  the  wage- 
system  and  competition,  and  how  these,  after  having  brouglit 
the  capitalist  system  to  its  present  height,  are  now  undermin- 
ing it,  and  will  before  long  lead  it  to  a  catastrophe  and  a 
crash.  After  proving  this  to  us,  and  especially  to  the 

working-classes,  Marx  in  effect  continues,  "  Prepare  your- 
selves ;  organize  yourselves.  The  fruit  is  soon  ripe  ;  capi- 
talism must  soon  fall.  Then  at  length  you  can  secure  to 
yourselves  the  full  reward  of  your  labor."  Marx,  as 

well  as  German  Collectivism,  is  thus,  like  the  German  mind, 
essentially  critical.  He  has  concerned  himself  almost  ex- 
clusively with  the  evolution  toward  destruction ;  it  is  his 
great  achievement  that  he  has  proven  this  scientifically 
and  conclusively.  He  has  never  been  successfully  refuted, 
and  never  can  be.  It  is  true  that  this  capitalist  system  is 
evolving  toward  a  catastrophe  and  a  crash,  unless  fore- 
stalled. 

But  this  is  not  the  last  word,  —  a  critical  philosophy  never 
can  be,  —  and  Marx  never  assumed  it  was.  Tlie  last  word 
must  relate  to  the  nature  and  outlines  of  tlie  new  social 
order,  and  to  that  Marx  devotes  only  a  few  lines  in  the 
closing  part  of  his  Capital.  Moreover,  he  assumes  tlie 
crash,  and  then  suggests  the  new  system,  but  as  an  empiri- 
cal expedient  that  should  be  adopted,  as  a  personal  conceit 
that  may  or  may  not  come  true.  This  gives  rise  to 

the  complaints,  not  so  very  unreasonable,  by  imiuirers,  that 
Collectivism  lacks  positive  formulas,  and  fully  accounts  for 
the  fact  that  many  Socialists,  when  they  are  pressed,  often 
do  not  know  whether  they  are  Communists  or  Collectivists, 


i886.]  THE  MENTAL  REVOLUTION.  241 

and  also  e\[)laiiis  the  ro(]uetry  of  some  with  Anarchism,  with 
w'hich  our  agreement  is  really  but  superficial. 

Well,  it  is  not  always  in  the  nations  that  give  rise  to  new 
ideas  that  they  reach  their  highest  development.  It  seems 
to  me  that  Morley's  "sacred  torch  which  shifts  from  bearer 
to  bearer,"  after  passing  from  France  to  Germany,  is  now 
about  to  return  to  Anglo-Saxons ;  that  it  is  they,  these  prac- 
tical folk  who  dislike  to  tear  down  before  they  know  what 
to  build  up,  who  will  develop  these  positive  formulas  of 
Collectivism  in  its  larger  outlines,  though,  of  course,  not  in 
its  details,  and  supplement  Marx  by  working  out  the  more 
important  and  wider  circle  of  constructive  evolution.  This 
will  then  constitute  Anglo-Saxon  Collectivism,  and  will  finish 
the  mental  preparation  for  the  Coming  Revolution, 

The  evolution  of  this  capitahst  system  towards  a  catas- 
trophe is  a  truth,  but  //  is  not  the  taliole  truth.  For,  fortu- 
nately, side  by  side  with  these  destructive  tendencies  there 
are  everywhere  around  us  constructive  tendencies  at  work  — 
this  is  the  other  half  of  the  truth.  It  is  well  to  know  that 
a  flower  is  decaying,  but  it  is  at  least  equally  important  to 
note  that  at  the  same  time  the  fruit  is  ripening.  The  capi- 
talist system  is  being  sapped  in  its  foundations,  true ;  but 
evolution  is  also,  under  our  very  eyes,  laying  the  foundation, 
shaping  the  outlines,  of  the  social  oj'der  that  is  to  replace  it. 
Verily,  we  may  be  said  to  be  witnessing  a  race  hetiueen 
destructive  and  constructive  tendencies,  the  result  of  which 
may  very  well  be,  that  the  new  system  may  forestall  and 
anticipate  the  catastrophe  and  the  crash.  Instead  of 

our  new  social  order  being  an  empirical  expedient,  Anglo- 
Saxon  Collectivism  will  thus  show  and  emphasize  that  it  is 
being  moulded  and  sha])ed  no7o,  and  by  the  present  society. 

Let  us  return  to  and  contrast  our  two  lines  of  spontaneous, 
unconscious  activities,  —  constructive  tendencies. 


342       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 


That  on  tlie  jiart  of  individuals,  we  saw,  was  a  constantly 
growing  concentration,  more  and  more  absorbing  the  eniuts 
of  isolated  individuals  ;  making,  in  fact,  the  efforts  of  isolated 
individuals  impossible.  The  movement  on  the  part 

of  the  collectivity  —  that  is,  the  nation  —  is  also  a  constantly 
growing  centralization,  more  and  more  absorbing  the  sphere 
of  individuals. 

Is  it  not  easy  to  see  that  the  time  will  surely  come,  when 
these  two  opposing  tendencies,  forces,  will  come  in  contact? 
Is  it  not  already  the  fact,  that,  in  all  civilized  countries,  tlic 
collectivity  IS  face  to  face  with  overgrown  corporations, 
whose  interests  are  diametrically  opposed  to  the  interests  of 
the  community  at  large  ? 

Can  any  one  doubt  the  issue  ? 

Of  course,  private  control  will  have  to  give  ivay  to  public 
control  along  the  whole  line."  The  function  hitherto  per- 
formed by  capitalists,  that  of  being  social  paymasters,  will 
devolve  on  the  State. 

This  will  sufficiently  indicate  the  general  character  of  the 
third  organic  Social  Order  awaiting  us. 

Capitalists  will  give  way  to  society,  organized  society,  —  the 
NATION.  Evolution  will  end  in  the  supremacy  of  the  collective 
7vill,  and  that  will  be  embodied,  not  in  the  commune,  the 
county,  as  some  maintain,  Init  in  the  nation,  if  United  Italy, 
United  Germany,  and  our  own  Union  have  a  meaning.^  The 
State,  the  Nation,  the  Fatherland,  is  an  indispensable  step 
of  evolution  toward  Humanity.  Ownership  of  the 

means  of  i)roduction  by  individuals  will  be  replaced  by 
ownership  and  supreme  control  oi  the  means  of  jjroduction 
by  the  collectivity.  Then  social  functions  will,  for  the  first 
time,  be  properly,  adequately  performed,  which  they  cannot 

'  The  expropriation  of  but  one  capitalist  class,  —  as  that  of  the  land-owners, — 
except  as  a  first  step,  would  not  coiislitiitc  a  social  revolution,  but  downright  robbery. 

2  The  movement  for  Irish  home-rule  is  no  exception,  for  it  will  effect  a  rc<il  union 
of  the  three  kingdoms. 


i886.]  THE  MENTAL  REVOLUTION.  243 

be  as  long  as  they  are  regarded  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
producer,  and  not  from  that  of  the  consumer,  —  society. 
That  the  latter  shall  be  provided  for ;  that,  for  instance, 
meat  shall  be  supplied,  is  the  essential ;  that  the  butclier  shall 
have  his  pay  is  secondary.  That  is  why  one  of  the  liberal 
professions,  say  a  physician,  has  always  been  honored  above 
a  trader,  —  because  he  is  ready  to  perform  his  function 
without  making  the  fee  his  object  \  and  so  in  the  new  social 
order  every  one's  daily  business  will  be  freed  from  its  present 
pettiness,  and  elevated  to  the  dignity  of  a  public  function. 

This  outcome  is  the  evident  decree  of  evolution ;  this  is 
the  enduring  social  order  which  all  previous  eras  have  been, 
and  this  transition  order  in  particular  is,  preparing  for.  Our 
plutocrats  have  been  invested  with  supreme  power  expressly 
to  be  instrumental  in  making  ready  for  its  advent. 

With  it  we  shall  have  reached  the  last  step  in  our  progress 
in  co-operation.  From  slavery,  through  serfdom  and  wage- 
dom,  we  shall  attain  to  iwluniary  co-operation  of  all,  — 
SOCUL  CO-OPERATION,  having  for  our  motto,  "  Leisure  for  all, 
idleness  for  none^ 

Note,  however,  that  control  of  all  means  of  production  by 
the  collectivity  does  not  imply  that  the  government  is  to  (\o 
all  the  nation's  business.  There  will  be  a  centralization  of 
poxver,  but  not  of  functions,  except,  say,  these  three  :  that 
of  being  general  statistician,  general  manager,  and  gen- 
eral arbitrator.  These  the  collectivity  will  take  upon  itself, 
leaving  all  the  rest  to  perfectly  free  associations  of  workers. 

There  will  hardly  be  a  "  government "  at  all,  l)ut  there 
will  be  a  vigorous  administration  of  affairs ;  that  is  to  say, 
government  over  things,  instead  of  over  men.  It  will  be 
vigorous,  because  it  will  be  administered  by  the  competent, 
skilful,  and  wise.  Here,  of  course,  the  stereotypic  (juestion 
will  be  put :  "  Ah,  but  how  will  you  secure  the  competent, 
skilful,  and  wise?"      The  answer  is:    l>y  true  democracy ; 


244       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STA  TE.     [1794- 

that  is  to  say,  the  competent,  skilful,  and  wise  will  inevitably 
gravitate  toward  the  leadership  of  affairs  when  they  are 
selected  from  below  by  free  citizens,  independent  of  all  indi- 
viduals, and  that  is  the  only  way  of  securing  them. 

How  otherwise  we  imagine  the  New  Social  Order,  can  be 
learned,  by  those  who  are  interested,  from  the  former  work 
by  me,  already  mentioned,  The  Co-operative  Covimonwealth, 
which  may  be  said  to  treat  of  the  statics  of  Collectivism,  as 
this  volume  has  concerned  itself  with  its  dynamics. 
*         *         * 

Which  nation  will,  first  of  all,  realize  Collectivism  ? 

It  has  lately  made  giant  progress  in  all  European  countries, 
as  well  as  in  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  both  as 
to  number  and  character  of  disciples,  and,  especially,  by  all 
accepting  the  doctrine  of  Marx.  There  can  be  no  doul)t 
that  before  long  serious  attempts  will  be  made  on  the  Con- 
tinent to  bring  it  in  by  force.  I  am  in  this  not  thinking  of 
Russia,  for  her  coming  crisis  will  be  her  "  French  Revolu- 
tion," in  which  connection  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  the 
Russian  plutocracy  have,  during  the  last  thirty  years,  remark- 
ably increased  in  wealth,  compared  with  the  rest  of  the  nation. 
No  ;  the  first  country  to  suggest  itself  is,  of  course,  France. 

The  Paris  Commune  of  1871  was  a  perfectly  spontaneous 
movement,  coming  absolutely  unexpected  on  the  leaders  of 
the  working-classes.  The  bourgeoisie,  in  their  usual  hatred 
of  the  masses,  determined,  at  the  fall  of  the  Comiximie,  to 
tear  out  this  revolutionary  spirit  by  the  roots,  and  went  to 
work,  in  the  words  of  the  clerical  writer  of  The  yews  of 
France,  "  with  a  disregartl  of  human  life  never  before  wit- 
nessed." They  murdered  in  cold  blood  thirty-five  thousand 
of  the  flower  of  Parisian  manhood,  and  deported  as  many 
more.  For  five  years  the  work-people  gave  no  sign  of 
political  life.  At  last,  in  1876,  by  the  generosity  of  the  Jew 
Cremieux,  tiie  trades-unions  of  France  were  enabled  to  hold 


i886.|  GROU'TII   OF  COLLECT/ l7SHr.  245 

a  congress  in  Lyons,  at  which  they  declared  that  they  had 
nothing  to  do  with  Sociahsni  in  any  form. 

But  in  that  year  two  men  returned  from  exile,  who,  almost 
in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  were  entirely  to  change  the  aspect 
of  things.  They  were  Benoit  Malon  and  Jules  Guesdc. 
Thanks  to  their  agitation,  at  the  second  congress  of  the 
trades-unions  at  Paris,  in  1877,  there  were  eight  votes  in 
favor  of  a  Collectivist  resolution  ;  and  in  1879,  at  the  third 
(very  largely  attended)  congress  of  trades-unions  and  work- 
ingmen's  "circles  "  at  Marseilles,  a  purely  Collectivist  reso- 
lution, in  the  spirit  of  Marx,  was  passed  by  a  two-thirds 
majority.  Since  that  time  no  large  gathering  of  French 
workmen  has  ever  taken  place  that  has  not  resolved  in  fi.ivor 
of  Collectivism.  Even  the  last  Trades-Union  Congress,  held 
in  1 886  in  Paris,  under  the  auspices  of  the  government,  which 
granted  railroad  passes  and  five  thousand  francs,  closed  by 
declaring  itself,  to  the  great  scandal  of  the  bourgeois  press, 
CoUectivists.  Everywhere  in  the  industrial  centres  the  elite 
of  the  workmen  are  CoUectivists.  They  have  in  many  cities, 
Paris  included,  Collectivist  aldermen,  and  seven  working- 
men  members  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies.  In  Paris  in 
1886,  on  the  resignation  of  Rochefort,  the  Collectivist  can- 
didate received  a  hundred  thousand  votes ;  while  his  oppo- 
nent, representing  the  whole  opposition,  clerical,  monarchist, 
and  republican,  received  but  a  hundred  and  thirty-five  thou- 
sand votes.  But  it  is  only  work-people  that  adopt 
Collectivism  in  France.  The  educated  classes  and  trades- 
people hold  aloof,  and  will  have  nothing  to  do  with  it. 

Nothing,  therefore,  more  likely  than  to  hear  of  a  revolu- 
tionary movement  in  France  during  either  of  the  approaching 
centennial  years  of  the  great  Revolution.  In  spite  of  the 
crushing  opposition  to  overcome,  it  is  far  from  unlikely  to 
succeed  at  first,  especially  at  Paris.  Tiie  Parisian  />oi/rgcoisic 
is  notoriously,  since  the  Commune,  more  cowardly  than  ever, 


246       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITIOX  STATE.      [1794- 

and  may  be  reckoned  on  to  give  up  their  city  without  a  blow 
to  the  revolutionary  element.  But  the  danger  of  a  success- 
ful counter-revolution  is  there  so  great  that  there  is  but  little 
hope  of  lasting  success ;  for  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
French  bourgeoisie  will  prove  itself  just  as  unpatriotic  as  tlie 
nobility  of  a  century  ago,  and  call  on  Germany  to  interfere. 
And  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  revolution  commences  in  Ger- 
many, there  is  the  double  danger  of  interference  from  France 
and  Russia.  And  then,  the  terribly  bitter  and  revengeful 
sentiments  we  have  noted  in  the  French  working-classes,  how- 
ever excusable,  constitute  but  a  poor  foundation  on  which 
to  erect  a  new  social  order.  We  can  therefore  rely, 

for  the  first  realization  of  Collectivism,  only  on  Great  Britain 
and  tlic  United  States.  In  both  countries  there  is  no  crush- 
ing opposition  to  overcome,  in  the  first  place,  —  only  public 
opinion,  — and  there  is  no  foreign  interference  to  fear.  Great 
Britain,  moreover,  as  we  have  seen,  has  been  the  leader  in  tlie 
great  changes  ever  since  the  Reformation.  Noblesse  oblige  ! 
It  becomes  her  or  us  to  lead  in  the  Coming  Revolution. 

That  Collectivism  has  made  wonderful  progress  in  Great 
Britain  during  the  last  ten  years,  is  evident  to  all.  Poets, 
artists,  fellows  of  colleges,  ministers  both  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  the  Church  of  Scotland,  besides  a  great  num- 
ber of  educated  men,  openly  work  for  the  cause,  and  many 
more  secretly.  In  Great  Britain,  then,  in  contradistinction 
to  France,  it  is  the  brain-workers  that  lead,  and  the  muscle- 
workers  that  follow,  —  a  fact  of  great  importance.  And  the 
latter  really  have  commenced  to  follow.  That  was  shown 
in  a  remarkable  manner  by  the  great  demonstration  in 
Hyde  Park  on  Easter  Monday,  1887,  composed  admittedly 
of  the  very  best  sort  of  people.  They  crowded  by  prefer- 
ence round  the  two  Socialist  platforms,  which  literally  were 
surrounded  by  an  ocean  of  uplifted,  attentive,  and  enthusias- 
tic  faces.     These  people  might  possibly  have  been  attracted 


1886.]  ''GOD    WILLS  IT/''  247 

in  such  numbers  by  mere  curiosity,  but  tiicy  would  not 
have  api)lauded  7uhat  they  did  not  like  to  hear.  London 
Radical   crowds   are  not  hypocritic.  On  the  same 

roaster  Monday,  Collectivist  missionaries  from  London  held 
a  meeting,  that  grew  to  be  of  enormous  size,  in  the  collicr\' 
district  of  Northumberland,  to  which  large  numbers  of  miners, 
said  by  all  to  be  among  the  most  respected  men  of  the  vari- 
ous districts,  marched  in  procession  from  villages,  some  six 
to  eight  miles  distant.  And  the  same  is  the  case  wherever 
one  goes  in  England  or  Scotland  —  even  more  in  Scotland 
than  in  England.  In  London,  in  a  hundred  halls,  Sunday 
after  Sunday,  audiences  listen  to  lectures  mostly  on  Socialism 
in  some  shape  or  other. 

\w  Paisley  (Scotland)  the  provost  introduces  the  poet 
William  Morris  in  a  sympathetic  speech,  and  takes  the 
chair.  In  Glasgow  Edward  Caird,  professor  of  moral 
philosophy,  does  the  same  to  this  writer.  In  London  a 
member  of  Parliament,  Cunningham  Graham,  presides,  and 
regrets  he  is  "  not  yet "  a  Socialist.  In  England  there  are 
two  large  Christian  Socialist  societies,  —  one  in  London, 
that  publishes  an  excellent  monthly  journal, —  and  another 
in  Clifton,  Bristol,  that  issues  occasional  pamphlets,  which 
John  Ruskin  declares  to  be  the  best  pamphlets  on  economic 
subjects  in  English.  In  Edinburgh  there  is  a  large  stu- 
dents' Socialist  society,  and  in  all  the  British  universities 
classes  have  been  formed  for  the  study  of  Socialism,  and 
ministers  deliver  everywhere  Socialist  sermons. 

In  the  United  States  and  Great  Britain  it  is,  of  course,  by 
political  methods  that  Collectivism  will  be  realized.  It 
certainly  will  not  take  many  years  to  make  it  in  the  latter 
country  an  issue  of  practical  politics. 

The  present  alliance  between  the  Gladstonians  and  the 
Irish  party  is  a  most  promising  fact.  Indeed,  they  now  may 
be  said  to  form  one  thortniglily  deinocnitic  party,  since  the 


248       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STA  TE.      [1794- 


Whigs  and  Chamberlain  are,  fortunately,  eliminated,  as  they 
had  to  be  some  time  or  other.  Home-rule,  soon  to  be 
granted  to  Ireland,  will  cause  a  real  union  between  that 
island,  hitherto  a  ball  and  chain  on  England's  limbs,  and 
Great  Britain,  and  make  the  two  democracies  walk  forever 
after  hand  in  hand.  Then  all  the  tremendous  social  ques- 
tions that  now  for  so  long  have  been  waiting  for  a  solution 
will  come  to  the  front.  Great  Britain  is  the  only > country 
where  Collectivists  are  so  fortunately  situated  that  tlicy  can 
accomplish  the  Coming  Revolution  constitutionally. 

Considering  the  speed  with  which  we  are  now  progressing, 
it  is  by  no  means  presumptuous  to  predict  that  by  the  close 
of  another  generation  Collectivists  may  succeed  in  electing 
a  majority  of  the  House  of  Commons  ;  and  that,  according 
to  the  British  Constitution,  as  it  has  in  practice  been  worked 
out,  would  be  all  that  would  be  required.  They  could  then 
constitutionally  demand  the  reahzation  of  Collectivism  ;  and 
if  the  plutocrats  should  refuse  or  threaten  or  attempt  vio- 
lence, the  CoUectivist  majority  would  have  the  immense  ad- 
vantage of  having  the  British  bias  for  legality  on  their  side, 
and  could  summon,  with  all  promise  of  success,  the  working- 
classes  to  rise  behind  them  and  enforce  their  demand,  what 
these  would  hardly  do  in  any  other  contingency. 

In  this  connection  it  is  very  regrettable  that  the  great 
poet  ^Villiam  Morris,  who  has  done  so  much  for  Collectivism 
in  Great  Britain,  despises  political  action  and  "  parliamentary 
half-measures ;  "  that  is  to  say,  he  is  not  as  clear-sighted  as 
Herbert  Spencer,  who,  from  fear  of  our  cause,  warns  Parlia- 
ment that  in  every  one  of  their  "  half-measures  "  they  are 
eslaljlishing  principles  which  by  their  momentum  are  sure  to 
lead  to  Collectivism.  And  to  think  that  Morris  could  by 
this  time  be  in  Parliament,  with  a  little  group  around  him, 
if  not  of  Collectivists,  at  least  of  advanced  Radicals,  forcing 
affairs  still  more  in  a  Colk'ctivist  direction  !     Instead  of  that, 


1886.]  "GOD    WILLS  IT!''  249 

he  has  the  truly  Utopian  idea  of  a  universal  strike  ;  i.e.,  that 
one  fine  day  all  the  workers  will  fold  their  arms,  and  refuse 
to  do  a  stroke  of  work  until  they  get  Collectivism. 

In  the  United  States  we  are  not  nearly  as  well  situated. 
Here  the  Constitution  must  first  be  changed,  which  re(iuires 
a  three-fourths  majority  of  all  the  States.  That  almost  neces- 
sarily drives  us  Collectivists  into  unconstitutional,  at  least 
extra-constitutional,  ways.  However,  as  soon  as  half  of  the 
effective  majority  in  America  once  wills  Collectivism,  no 
doubt  they  will  find  a  way,  as  the  anti -slavery  Republican 
party  did  when  they  first  drove  a  dozen  States  out  of  the 
Union,  and  then  admitted  them  —  on  condition  of  sanctioning 
the  abolition  of  slavery. 

But  meanwhile,  until  Collectivism  becomes  an  issue  of 
practical  politics,  whether  in  Great  Britain  or  the  United 
States,  it  is  our  business  to  win  over  the  small  minority,  the 
choice  band  of  spirits  who  in  the  near  future  will  effect 
the  mental  revolution,  —  the  business  of  us  whom  the  Power 
behind  Evolution  has  raised  up  as  pioneers,  unable  to  think 
and  act  otherwise  than  as  we  do,  though  often,  in  our  long- 
ing for  sympathy,  deeply  feeling  our  isolation.  There  are 
plenty  of  thoughtful,  generous  youths,  both  men  and  women, 
all  around  us,  who  need  only  fully  to  understand  our  philoso- 
phy to  be  converted  to  it.  That  has  already  been  done  to 
some  extent  in  England  and  Scotland,  as  we  have  seen, 
during  the  last  five  years ;  but  here  in  America  we  have  as 
yet  hardly  had  our  first  real  success. 

That  Collectivism,  so  far,  has  made  so  little  progress  among 
Anglo-Saxons,  there  are  several  things  to  account  for ;  first, 
this  :  that  hitherto  only  the  critical  method  has  been  em- 
ployed in  expounding  Socialism,  —  a  method  very  effective 
with  the  German  or  French  mind,  but  leaving  no  impres- 
sion at  all  on  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind.      The  Anglo-Saxon 


250       THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STATE.      [1794- 

who  hitherto  happened  to  study  Collectivism,  met  only  with 
teachings  of  evolution  towards  destruction  ;  and  such  teach- 
ings roused  no  enthusiasm  in  him,  created  in  him  no  senti- 
ment of  duty.  He  might  be  convinced  that  a  catastrophe 
and  crash  were  impending;  but  "the  crash,"  he  would  say, 
"  will  come  soon  enough,  when  it  does  come,  without  my 
help."  On  the  other  hand,  once  convince  our  young  men 
and  women  that  Collectivism  is  the  evident  decree  of' evolu- 
tion ;  that  the  work  to  do  is  constructive  rather  than  destruc- 
tive, and  that  they  have  it  in  their  power  materially  to  hasten 
its  advent,  and  anticipate,  forestall,  the  catastrophe,  and  we 
shall  rouse  in  them  a  solemn  feeling  of  duty ;  they  will  feel 
a  call  to  co-operate  with  the  Power  behind  Evolution. 

Again  :  the  doctrine  that  Collectivism  is  a  class  movcmc7it 
has  certainly  been  misunderstood.  It  has  been  interpreted 
to  mean,  that  it  is  a  movement  of  those  who  work  with  their 
hands  against  all  others.  Yet  it  means  only  this  (but  also 
this  decidedly)  :  that  it  is  a  movement  of  all  the  workers, 
whether  with  hands  or  with  brains,  against  those  who 
monopolize  the  means  of  labor.  Thus,  in  "  workers  "  are 
included  all  physicians,  all  teachers,  all  men  of  science,  as 
far  as  they  are  not  capitalists.  And  while,  undoubtedly.  Col- 
lectivism will,  in  the  first  place,  benefit  work-people  in  the 
narrower  sense,  —  level  them  up,  —  it  is  by  no  means  they 
who  are  exclusively  interested,  or  the  only  ones  upon  whom 
we  call.  No  great  social  movement  ever  succeeded  before 
educated  men  took  hold  of  it ;  and  Collectivism  especially, 
as  we  have  seen,  is  an  outcome  of  the  development  of  the 
whole  social  body.  It  is  also  worth  noting,  that,  with  hardly 
an  exception,  the  leading  Collectivists  in  every  country  have 
not  come  from,  and  do  not  come  from,  the  manual  workers. 
Anglo-Saxon  Collectivism  in  particular  will  therefore  address 
itself,  I  am  sure,  to  thoughtful,  generous  minds  of  all  classes, 
and  its  leaders  be  a  band  of  choice  spirits  from  all  classes. 


1886.]  ''GOD    WILLS  IT!''  25  I 

Young  men  and  women  !  it  is  impossible  that  you  can  look 
at  the  lives  that  are  led  around  you,  or  contemplate  your 
own  lives,  and  not  be  filled  with  a  noble  discontent.  Then 
reflect  that  you  are  on  the  threshold  of  the  Golden  Age  for 
mankind,  and  that  it  is  your  high  privilege  to  hasten  its 
advent.  Think  how  blessed  your  old  age  will  be,  if  you  fill 
your  existence  with  high  efforts,  for  this,  indeed,  constitutes 
the  only  true  life ;  if  the  ideal  is  the  bond  that  joins  your 
friends  to  you,  for  this,  indeed,  constitutes  the  only  true 
friendship  ! 

This  brotherhood  of  conscious  co-operaors  with  the  Power 
behind  Evolution  need  not  be  large ;  a  mental  revolution, 
like  all  great  successful  revolutions,  is  made,  not  by  numbers, 
but  by  wills.  The  effective  majority  of  any  nation  —  that  is, 
the  number  of  those  who  lead  its  march,  and  time  its  prog- 
ress —  itself  is  comparatively  small ;  all  that  has  to  be  done 
is,  to  tui-n  the  brains  of  that  "  effective  majority,"  as  the 
anti-slavery  men  did  the  brains  of  the  leaders  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  and  the  Home-Rulers  those  of  the  Gladstonians, 
and  the  revolution  is  virtually  accomplished.  What  we 
shall  have  to  struggle  with  and  to  conquer  is  sluggishness, 
ingrown  habits,  traditional  views,  and  mistaken  notions,  more 
than  pure   selfishness.  One  of  the    most   effective 

weapons  for  that  struggle  will  be  the  press,  —  to  a  great 
extent  the  already  established  press.  And  one  way  for  the 
brotherhood  to  utilize  the  latter  may  be  the  organization 
of  private  societies,  in  constant  communication  and  ex- 
change with  each  other,  for  the  purpose  of  writing  short 
and  pithy  letters  on  topics  of  the  day,  and  having  one  such 
letter  each  and  every  day  published  now  in  one,  now  in 
another,  of  the  local  newspapers.  My  experience  teaches 
me  that  not  even  the  most  inimical  journal  will  refuse  a  well- 
written  letter ;  at  all  events,  as  long  as  it  is  unaware  of  its 
being  the  fruit  of  a  "  conspiracy."     Another  way  to  utilize 


252     THE  PRESENT  TRANSITION  STA  TE.  [1794-1886.] 

the  established  press  might  be  the  method  adopted  by  Bris- 
bane in  the  forties  in  New  York  City  in  his  agitation  for 
Fourierism,  —  the  renting  of  a  cohunn  of  some  popular 
journal,  and  filling  it  periodically  with  CoUectivist  matter. 

There  is  one  thing  that  will  give  these  Anglo-Saxon  Col- 
lectivists  a  peculiar  force,  and  serve  them  as  a  wonderful 
stimulus,  and  that  is  — faith.  Thoughtful  Anglo-Saxons, 
however  unorthodox,  still  refuse  to  give  up  the  idea  of 
Providence.  When  they  become  convinced  that  our  pres- 
ent stage  of  civilization  is  a  necessary  result  of  the  force  of 
things,  that  men  are  Collectivists  because  their  minds  have 
by  necessity  been  twisted  in  this  direction,  and  that  a  Col- 
lectivist  Order  is  the  unavoidable  outcome  of  evolution,  they 
will  more  than  ever  see  the  hand  of  Providence  in  human 
affairs.  They  will  know  nothing  of  a  blind  Fate  behind 
Evolution,  but  place  there  a  Will,  an  Intelligence,  a  helpful 
Presence.  That  will  not  prevent  them  from  heartily  co-oper- 
ating with  those  who,  like  Danton,  are  doing  the  will  of  that 
Presence,  even  if  doubting  its  existence  :  they  will  only  claim 
they  are  more  clear-seeing.  But  their  faith  will  lend  to  their 
convictions  a  peculiar  strength,  since  it  enables  them  to  give 
to  those  who  inquire  of  them,  "What  is  it  you  propose?" 
this  answer  :  — 

"  We  do  not  propose  any  thing.  It  is  the  Power  behind 
Evolution  that  proposes  this  change,  and  therefore  it  must 
be  accomplished,  at  the  risk  of  social  heart-burnings,  at  the 
risk  even  of  setting  class  against  class,  at  the  start." 

Collectivists  can  properly  adopt  the  motto  of  the  French 
revolutionists  of  last  century,  and  in  their  turn  sing  "  (^a 
ira/"  ("  It  will  go!"),  for,  after  all,  it  is  but  the  revolu- 
tionary equivalent  of  that  old  cry  of  the  Crusaders,  — 

"  God  wills  rr  ! " 


RECENT  FRENCH  WORKS  ON  DANTON. 


Notes  de  Topifio-Lebriin,  a  juror  of  the  Revolutionary  Tribunal 
of  Paris,  on  the  trial  of  Danton  and  of  Fouquier-Tinville,  published 
by  J.-F.-F.  Chardoillet;  pamphlet,  8vo.     Paris,  J.  Baudet,  1875. 

PriiicipaKX  ei'encvieiits  pour  et  contrc  la  Rhiohction  et  pridictioit  de 
Danton  an  tribunal  revolutionnaire,  accomplie,  by  Vilain  d'Aubigny  ; 
pamphlet,  8vo.    Paris,  the  year  III. 

Vinalite  de  Danton,  by  Eugene  Despois  ;  "  Revue  de  Paris,"  issue 
of  July  I,  1857. 

Ilistoire  de  la  Revobition  fran^aise,  by  NICOLAS  VlLLAUM^  ;  4  vols.; 
Svo.    Paris,  1850. 

Danton,  documents  authentiques  pour  servir  a  Vhistoire  de  la  Revolu- 
tion fran^aise,  by  Alfred  Bougeart;  i  vol.,  Svo.    Paris,  1861. 

Danton,  memoire  sur  sa  vie  privee,  avec  pikes  justijicatives,  by  Dr. 
Roiunet;  I  vol.,  Svo.    Paris,  1884. 

Danton  et  Victor  Hugo :  attx  100,000  Iccteurs  de  "  Quati-e-vingt- 
Treise,"  by  "  un  Vieux  Cordelier  ;"  pamphlet,  i2mo.    Paris,  1877. 

Le  prods  dcs  Dantonistes,  d'apres  les  documents,  precede  d'une  in- 
troduction historique,  by  Dr.  RoBlNET;  i8mo.    Paris,  1879. 

(Euvres  de  Danton,  recueillies  et  annotes  by  A.  Vermorel;  i2mo. 
Paris,  1866. 

Les  Eleutheromanes,\>^  DiDEROT  (Danton  and  the  Encyclopedisles) ; 
I  vol.,  32mo.    Paris,  Ghio,  1884. 

Da}tton,hY  Georges  Lennox;  i  vol.,  i2mo.  Sandoz  and  Fisch- 
bacher,  Paris,  1878.     [A  popular  history,  but  no  new  facts.] 

Ca?nille  Desmoulins,  Lucile  Desmoulins,  Etude  sur  les  Dantonistes 
d^apris  des  documents  7iouveaux  et  inedits,  by  J.  Claretie  ;  Svo. 
Paris,  Plon,  1875. 

Danton  et  la  politique  contefnporaitie,  byANTONiN  DuBOST;  i  vol., 
l2mo.    Charpentier,  Paris,  1880. 

253 


254    F:ECENT  FRENCH  WORKS  ON  D ANTON. 

Danton  et  les  massacres  dc  scptcnibre,  by  Antonin   Dubost;  pam- 
phlet, 8vo.    Paris,  Charavay,  1S85. 

N^otes  siir  Vcloqiience  de  Danton,  by  F.  A.  AuLARD,  Professor  of 
Rhetoric  ;  8vo.    Paris,  Charavay,  1882. 

Les  gra7ids  Fran^ais,  Danton  ;  by  F.  A.  AULARD;  pamphlet,  i2mo. 
Paris,  Picard-Bernheim. 

La  philosophie  positive,  by  AUGUSTE  CoMTE,  tom.  vi.    Paris,  Bache- 
lier,  1842. 

La  politique  positive,  by  AuGUSTE  COMTE,  tom.  iii.,  dynamique  so- 
ciale.    Dunod,  1854. 

La  Revolution  fran^aise,  iy8g-i8ij,  by  M.  Pierre  Laffitte  ;  i  vol. 
32mo.    Paris,  1868. 
Consult  also : 

Lundis  Nevohitionnaires,  by  Georges  Avenel  ;  8vo.     Paris,  Ernest 
Leroux,  1875. 

La    Revobition  fran^aise,   a   monthly   review  edited   by  August 
DiDE,  senator;  started  in  18S0. 


NDEX. 


Abolition  of  slavery  by  the 
Jacobins,  171. 

Absolute  government  instituted,  129. 

Administration  of  things,  243. 

Aiguillon,  Duke  d',  43. 

Alison,  Sir  Archibald,  7. 

Amalgamation  of  regulars  and  volun- 
teers, 133. 

Anarchists,  successors  of  the  Hebert- 
ists,  177,  178,  179;  Anarchism,  co- 
quetting with,  241. 

Anglomania,  20;  31. 

Anglo-Saxon  Collectivism,  241,  250. 

Antiquity,  why  the  love  of  the  revo- 
lutionists for,  23. 

April  5,  1794,  193. 

Assembly,  National.  See  National 
Assembly. 

Assignats,  71  ;  151;  155;  215. 

Association-Farming,  230. 

Association,  growing,  239. 

Atheism  a  fruit  of  generosity,  23,204. 

Aug,  4,  1789,42. 

Aug.    10,   1792,   73  ;    anniversary  of. 

Authority,  rightful,  12. 

BaBEUF'S  conspiracy,  217. 

Bailly,  34;  41 ;  62  ;  180. 

Bank  of  France  founded,  218. 

Barentin,  28. 

Bastille,  27;  41;  anniversary  of,  49, 

50. 
Beccaria,  29. 


Rillaud-Varennes,  92;  93;  176;   179; 

iSo;    guilty   of    Danton's    irvrder, 

1 89  ;  repents,  19,  51. 
Blanc,  Louis,  12;  30;  156;   198. 
Board-schools,  233. 
Bonaparte,  76 ;  roots  the  Revolution, 

217. 
Bouchotte,  133 ;  circular  about  wooden 

shoes,  134. 
Bourgeoisie,  deeds  of  the  French,  63; 

the  worst  of  any,  221,  244,  245. 
Bourse  closed,  161 ;  re-opened,  214. 
Bright,  John,  234. 
Brisbane,  251. 
Brumaire  18,  217. 
Brunswick's  manifesto,  71. 
Bureaus  of   Statistics  of  Labor,  156; 

234- 
Burke,  Thomas,  213. 
Butterflies,  evolution  in,  237. 

^A  IRA,  6,  36,  42,  76,  213. 

Cahiers,  32. 

Caird,  Professor,  247. 

Calendar,  the  new,  172. 

Cambaceres,  169,  170,  171. 

Cambon,  97,  150. 

Capacity,  239. 

Careers  open  to  talent,  219. 

Carlyle,  9;  12  ;  13;  63;  66;   147;  210. 

Carmagnole,  the,  130. 

Carnot  the  revolutionary  Von  Moltke. 

133.  134,  191- 

Catastrophe,  225,  240,  241. 

^55 


>S6 


INDEX. 


Centre,  the,  94. 

Chamberlain,  248. 

Champ  de  Mars,  massacre  on,  62. 

Charles  I.,  15,  16,  37. 

Charpentier,  Mademoiselle,  27. 

Chartist  party,  why  it  failed,  220. 

Chaumette,  57,  181. 

Children  concerning   the   collectivity 

more  than  the  parents,  166,  233. 
Chinese  fable,  54. 

Choice  spirits  from  all  classes,  249, 250. 
Christianity,  10;  anti-social,  212. 
Church  property,  53. 
Church  vs.  the  State,  232. 
Citizens,  "active"  and  "passive,"  56. 
Class  movement,  how  far  Collectivism 

is  a,  250. 
Cloots,  Baron  de,  57,  58,  93,  95. 
Club  of  Cordeliers,    28  ;    56 ;   66  ;   of 

Jacobins,  58. 
Code,  169. 
Colbert,  30. 

Collectivists,  238,  244,  245,  246. 
Collectivity,  242. 
Committee    on    Clemency,    184 ;     of 

Public  Welfare  instituted,  114;  131 ; 

143, 144 ;  giving  power  back  to  Con- 
vention, 209. 
Commonwealth  of  mankind,  211. 
Commune  of  Paris,  62  ;  244. 
Communism  a  failure,  217. 
Competent,  147 ;  243. 
Competition,  156;  223,  225. 
Comte,  Auguste,  3;  216. 
Condorcet,  appreciation   of    Danton, 

78;  143;  145;  150  ;  appreciation  of 

Robespierre,  207. 
Confidence  of  the  people,  48,  49. 
Conspiracy  by  King  and  Queen,  71. 
Constituent  Assembly.   See  National 

Assembly. 
Constitution,   British,    20;    39;    54; 

French,  of  '91,  54;  of  '93,   143;  of 

'95,  214. 


Constitutional  Convention  of  United 
States,  54. 

Contractors,  no;  114;  214. 

Convention,  the  National,  under  Gi- 
rondin  rule,  96  ;  100  ;  under  Jacobirr 
rule,  and  influenced  by  Danton,  126, 
132,  136,  140;  142,  143.  '46,  148. 
149.  150.  15I)  »55>  157.  162,  163, 
166,  167,  168,  169,  171,  172,  173, 
175  ;  under  Jacobin  rule,  an4  influ- 
enced by  Hebert  and  Robespierre, 
179,  iSo,  192,  20S,  2og ;  once  more 
under  plutocratic  rule,  214;  dis- 
solves, 215. 

Co-operation,  growth    in,    14;   social, 

243- 
Co-operative  Commonwealth,  4,  244. 
Co-operative  farming,  230. 
Co-operative  stores,  229. 
Cordelier.,  the  Old,  185. 
Counter-Revolution,  37;  39;  40;  156, 

157- 

Countess  of  Lichtcnau,  S7. 

Country,  our,  a  link  joining  us  to 
humanity,  124. 

Crash,  of  feudal  system,  42  ;  of  pres- 
ent system,  225,  240,  250. 

Cremieux,  244. 

Crisis,  225. 

Critical  periods,  14. 

Cruelty  in  Parisians,  90,  180,  iS6- 

Dans  le  Neant,  204. 

Danton,  Georges  Jacques,  the  atlas 
of  the  Revolution,  4  ;  his  kind  to 
br  encouraged,  6 ;  his  youth,  25, 
2 ' ,  27,  28,  29 ;  enters  the  Revolu- 
tion Oct.  6,  1789,  48;  as  agitator, 
56;  keeps  the  King  by  force  from 
St.  Cloud,  59 ;  as  the  first  republi- 
can, 60 ;  goes  to  England,  63 ;  the 
leader  of  Aug.  10,  73 ;  addresses 
the  Marseillais,  76  ;  becomes  minis- 
ter, 78  ;  organizes  opposition  to  in- 


INDEX. 


257 


vasion,  Si ;  domiciliary  visits,  82 ; 
infusing  self-confidence,  85  ;  bribes 
the  Countess  of  Lichtenau,  87; 
France  out  of  danger,  SS  ;  guiltless 
of  September  massacre,  89 ;  de- 
spises Marat,  93 ;  a  member  of 
Convention,  94;  goes  to  Belgium 
first  time,  96  ;  goes  to  Belgium  sec- 
ond time,  loi ;  addresses  Convention 
on  crisis  in  Belgium,  104 ;  on  in- 
vading Holland,  105  ;  on  Revolution- 
ary Tribunal,  107  ;  goes  to  Belgium 
the  third  time,  112;  address  on 
Committee  of  Public  Welfare,  114; 
"  do  not  mutilate  the  Convention," 
117  ;  directs  the  insurrection  of  May 
31,  118;  as  a  statesman,  119;  re- 
verses the  war  policy,  121  ;  combats 
Federalism,  123;  his  own  policy, 
125  ;  eulogizes  Paris,  126;  institutes 
the  Absolute  Government,  123;  the 
levy  en  masse,  131  ;  his  resignation, 
136;  as  a  politico-economist,  150; 
a  uniform  maximum,  153  ;  liberates 
debtors,  157;  land  for  maimed  sol- 
diers, 160;  the  Law  of  Forty  Sous, 
161,  202;  on  education,  164;  in 
favor  of  compulsory  education,  166  ; 
on  the  clergy,  169 ;  on  woman's 
right  to  property,  171 ;  abolition  of 
slavery,  171 ;  opportunism,  173  ;  his 
hopes,  176  ;  as  to  the  "  Law  of  Sus- 
pects," 179  ;  hatred  of  Hebert,  180  ; 
leave  of  absence,  181 ;  at  his  home, 
182;  pity,  183;  last  address,  186; 
sayings,  191;  trial,  192;  on  the 
cart,  193;  on  the  scaffold,  194;  dis- 
interested, 196 ;  if  married  to  Mad- 
ame Roland,  200 ;  as  a  rhetorician, 
200  ;  on  religion,  204  ;  his  work  fin- 
ished by  Bonaparte,  218  ;  what  might 
have  been,  219,  220. 

Danton,  Madame,  76;  103;  200. 

Darkness  and  Dawn,  66. 


David,  bust  of  Marat,  127. 
Decadies,  172. 
Democracy,  114;  true,  243. 
Desmouhns,  Camille,  57  ;  93  ;  demands 

clemency,  183;  185,  194. 
Desmoulins,  Lucile,  74;  194;  206. 
Diderot,    21 ;    22 ;    his    atheism,    23, 

204. 
Directory,  all  regicides,  215. 
Discontent,  237;  251. 
Distribution  in  the  future,  230. 
Domiciliary  visits,  82. 
Drama  of  history,  13;  14;  15;   242; 

243- 
Drumont,  Edouard,  221  ;  244. 
Dumouriez,  71 ;  81  ;  SS  ;  96;  103  ;  105  ; 

112  ;  his  excuse,  113. 
Duport,  Adrian,  91. 
Duty,  I  ;  250. 

EdGEWORTH,  Abbe,  97. 

Educated  minds,  250. 

Education,  introduced  by  Jacobins, 
164;  as  a  step  of  evolution,  233. 

Egalite,  Philip,  60,  93,  180. 

Eliot,  George,  205. 

Encyclopjedia,  21,  22,  23,  29. 

Emerson,  9. 

Emigration,  42. 

Episode,  213. 

Equality,  before  the  law,  53 ;  Robes- 
pierre's shibboleth,  210;  true,  211. 

Evolution,  in  history,  13  ;  to  be  obeyed, 
215;  destructive,  240;  construc- 
tive, 241. 

Exchange,  closed,  161  ;  re-opened, 
214. 

Fabre  D'EGLANTINE,  57,  93, 

171,  187. 
Factory  Acts,  233. 
Faith,  252. 
Famine,  214. 
Federalism,  123. 


■58 


INDEX. 


P'estival,   of   the   Federation,  49,  50 ; 

of  Aug.  10,  131  ;  of  "the  Supreme 

Being,"  208. 
Foreign  markets,  225. 
Fox,  107. 

Fraternity,  12,  141,  157. 
Free  competition,  52;  untrammelled, 

214. 
Freedom,  7. 
French  language  made   universal   by 

Jacobins,  166. 
Freron,  57. 
Friendship,  true,  251. 
Fructidor,  215. 

GaRAT,  116;  iiS;  180. 

Garrison,  43. 

Gazette  de  France,  98. 

Genius,  211. 

George,  Henry,  175. 

German  Collectivism,  240. 

Gide,  Professor  Charles,  225. 

Girondins,  70;  94;  115;  first  "  muti- 
lating "  the  Convention,  117;  sus- 
pended, 118;  127;  144;  146;  148, 
177,  178  ;  180  ;  return  to  power, 
213. 

Gladstone,  10,  247. 

God,  204. 

"God's  mysterious  text,"  142,  175. 

"  God  wills  it,"  252. 

Godin,  160,  175. 

Golden  Age,  the,  251. 

Graham,  Cunningham,  248. 

Great  Ledger,  the,  163. 

Guaranties,  constitutional,  of  robberies, 
215,  218,  219. 

Guesde,  Jules,  245. 

Guilds,  22 ;  abolished,  30,  44. 

Handwriting  on  the  waii, 
223. 

Hatred  of  French  working  classes  for 
bourgeoisie,  69 ;  1 74 ;  220  ;  246. 


Hebert,  his  kind  to  be  repressed,  6:57; 
59;  68;  121;  169;  170;  Hebertism, 
176,  177,  178,  179,  iSo,  181;  1S5; 
186. 

Hebrew  example,  iS. 

Herault  de  Sechelles,  93;   118;  131; 

139;  187;  193;  194- 
Herbert,  Auberon,  178. 
Hero-worship,  210. 
History,  what  it  is,  11.  \ 

Hoche,  Gen.,  215;  217. 
Hugo,  Victor,  i ;  140;  142;  his  novel 

Ninety-Three,  196;  238. 
Humanity,  124;  144. 
Hyde  Park  demonstration,  246. 
Hypothesis,  3;  4. 
Hysterics,  72  ;  "jt,;  89. 

Immortality,  205. 

Incorruptible,  the,  206. 
Individualism,  44 ;  226. 
Insurance  companies,  230. 
Interest  legalized,  52. 
Interstate  Commerce  Act,  234. 
Invasion,  "Ji,  88. 

Jacobin  club,  58;  convention. 

See  National  Convention. 
James,  Henry,  sen.,  12. 
Jews  of  France,  221,  244. 
Johnson,  Dr.,  211. 
Jones,  Lloyd,  230. 
June  17,  17S9,  34. 
June  2,  1793,  "8. 

July  14,  17S9,  41  ;  anniversary  of,  49. 
July  28,  1794,  209. 

King,  a,  is  he  necessary,  60. 
Krapotkin,  Pierre,  181. 

Lafayette,  62, 79, 197, 199. 

Land,  land,  214. 
Lavoisier,  210. 
Law,  12. 


INDEX. 


259 


Leaders,  73,  74;  138.     See  also  211. 

Ledger,  the  Great,  163. 

Legendre,  57,  192. 

Legion  of  Honor,  217. 

Legislative  Body,  70,  91,  93. 

Leisure  for  all,  243. 

Lepelletier,  99  ;  loi  ;  164. 

Liberty,  7,  8,9,  12,  45;   Desmoulins 

on,  184. 
Life,  the  true,  251. 
Lindet,  Robert,  191. 
Locke,  1 8,  24. 
Lotteries,  214. 
Louis  XVL,  26 ;  30  ;  41 ;  47  ;  59  ;  60, 

63  ;  conspiracy  by,  71, ']'] ;  executed, 

97. 
Louis  XVin.,  215,  218. 
Louis  Philippe,  219,  220. 

Maimed  soldiers,  i6o. 

Mallet  du  Pan,  72. 
Mallock,  William  H.,  271. 
Malon,  Benoit,  245. 
Malouet,  46. 
Mandat,  75,  76. 

Marat,  his  kind  to  be  repressed,  6157; 
63  ;  78  ;  88  ;  his  portrait  by  himself, 

92,93;  "3i  117;  127- 

Marcy,  71. 

Marseillais,  74. 

Marx,  Karl,  240;  244. 

Massacre,  on  Champ  de  Mars,  62  ; 
September,  89. 

Maximum,  151. 

May  31,  1793,  US- 
May  5,  1789,  33. 

Mazzini,  9,  12. 

Metrical  system,  171. 

Middle  classes  generally,  63  ;  64  ;  65 
174. 

Middle  classes  of  Great  Britain,  38; 
of  France,  31  ;  35,  36,  45;  indict- 
ment against,  63  ;  their  crimes,  67 ; 
hating  the  working-classes,  69. 


Michel,  Louise,  226. 

Milliard,  a,  for  soldiers,  163. 

Mines,  218. 

Mirabeau,  new  letter  of,  31  ;  34  ;  35 ; 

42;  53;  59;  77;  127;  19S;  199. 
Modesty  of  the  people,  40,  141. 
Momoro,  57. 

Montesquieu,  19,  20,  54,  214. 
"  Moralizing  "  our  plutocrats,  216. 
Morley,  John,  2,  7,  10. 
Morris,  William,  205,  248. 
Most,  John,  177,  1 78. 
Municipalization  of  land,  234. 

Napoleonic  ideas,  218. 

Narrower  fanatics,  176. 

Nation,  242. 

National  Assembly,  34,  35,  51,  63. 

National  estates,  66,  67,  214. 

"  Neant,  dans  le,"  204. 

New  Social  Order,  236  ;  242 ;  244. 

"  Nothingness,"  204. 

Nov.  9,  1799,217. 

Oct.  6,  1789,  48. 
Octroi,  21. 
Opportunism,  173. 
Organic  periods,  13,  14,  15. 
Organization,  251. 
Over-production,  224. 

Paine,  Thomas,  88,  93,  192. 

Paris,  48. 

Paris,  the  Dantonist,  191,  192. 

Parliamentary  system,  55. 

Peasants  benefited,  45. 

Peltier,  82  ;   157. 

Philanthropists,  238. 

Plutocrats,  grasp  supreme  power,  35  ; 

suspended,   119;  return   to  power, 

213 ;  219. 
Political  power  needful,  35. 
Polytechnic  School,  167. 


26o 


INDEX. 


Poor-law,  framed  by  the  Jacobins, 
157 ;  except  that,  none  in  France, 
222. 

Positivist,  3 ;  226. 

Post-office,  232. 

Power  behind  Evolution,  11;  142; 
205  ;  232  ;  237  ;  238  ;  249 ;  250 ;  252. 

Prairial,  law  of,  208. 

Press,  the  use  of  the,  251. 

Private  enterprise,  174. 

Production  in  the  future,  229. 

Property,  sanction  of,  54,  149. 

Public  debts,  222,  223. 

Pym,  John,  16. 

Queen,  the,  36  ;  40  ;  42;  71 ;  180. 
Quinet,  Edgar,  2,  8,  45. 

Race  between  constructive  and 
destructive  tendencies,  241. 

Railway  system,  control  of,  by  tlie 
State,  234. 

Revenge,  214. 

Revolution,  the,  10,  14,  19,  40  ;  the 
Coming,  17,  19,  129,  236;  constitu- 
tionally accomplished,  248 ;  the 
English,  15, 16, 18  ;  38 ;  the  French, 
a  failure  or  success,  7,  8,  9,  10;  15, 
29  ;  born,  34  ;  the  mental,  25  ;  238. 

Revolutionary  government.  See  Ab- 
solute Govertimcnt. 

Revolutionary  Tribunal,  107. 

Ricordain,  26. 

Riz-pain-sel,  214. 

Robert,  57;   62;   93;    122;    Madame, 

74- 

Robespierre,  Maximilian,  his  kind  to 
be  repressed,  6;  royalist,  61;  78; 
93  ;  113  ;  164  ;  185  ;  188  ;  190  ;  205, 
206 ;  appreciation  by  Condorcet, 
207;  208;  his  "  Equality,"  210. 

Robinc't,  Dr.,  3,  196. 

Rochcfort,  245. 

Rogers,  Professor  Thorold,  66. 


Roland,  85,  91  ;  Madame,  28  ;  "  Queen 
of  France,"  80;  117;  180  •,  iSi  ; 
1S2  ;  197  ;  200. 

Rouget  de  Lisle,  145. 

Rousseau,  23,  24,  25. 

Rousselin  de  Saint-Albin,  200  ;  220. 

Ruhl,  186;  187;  191. 

Russia,  campaign  against,  219-,  plu- 
tocracy of,  244. 

SaINT-SIMON   the  historian,  31; 

the    Collectivist,    13,    157;     Saint- 

Simonism,  239. 
Saint-Just,  191  ;  210. 
Sans-culotte,  57;  armies,  217. 
Santerre,  76. 
Secrecy,  156. 
Selfishness  of  our  plutocrats,  65,  66, 

222,  223,  226. 
Senate,  United  States,  55. 
Shaftesbury,  Lord,  234. 
Sieyes,  16,  34,  46,  47. 
"  Silences,  Eternal,"  12. 
Smyth,  Professor  William,  7. 
Social  Contract,  28. 
Social  co-operation,  243. 
Socialism,  246,  247. 
Speculators,  162  ;  their  orgies,  214. 
Spencer,  Herbert,  13  ;  178 ;  235  ;  236 ; 

238;  248. 
Spirit  of  Laws,  19,  20. 
Standard  Oil  Company,  22S,  229. 
State,  232. 

States-Geneial,  31,  32,  33. 
Stationary  condition  of  tlic  race,  or 

nearly  so,  the  rule,  13. 
Statute  of  Philip  and  Mary,  16. 
Sundays,  no,  177. 
Supreme   Spirit  (Supreme  Will),  12, 

239,  252. 
Suspects,  176,  179. 
Suspicion,  77,  113;  Danton  trying  to 

allay,  108. 
1  Swiss,  massacre  of,  77. 


INDEX. 


261 


Sympathy,  longing  for,  236,  249. 
Syndical  Chambers  in  France,  23. 

Tableau  of  maximum,  155. 

Telegraph  system,  i^Z- 

Tendencies   in   society,   unconscious, 

229,  232,  241  ;  conscious,  236. 
Terror,  Red,  17,39,40,  176;  White, 

214. 
Tithes  abolished,  46,  47. 
Trades-unions,  231. 
Transition  state,  15,  20;  213. 
Trusts,  228. 
Tuileries,   storming   of,    76,    "]"] ;    the 

Convention  holding  its  sessions  in, 

126. 
Turgot,  30. 

Unfitness  of  our  plutocrats  for 

social  rule,  226. 
Unity  of  the  State,  53,  124. 

Valmy,  %^. 

Vendeans,  79 ;   Danton  pleading  for. 


Voltaire,  21. 
Volunteers,  109. 

Wage-system  as  viewed  by  the 

Jacobins,  149  ;  first  upbuilding  and 

then  undermining  our  social  system, 

223,  225. 
War,  American,  31  ;   of   propaganda, 

94;  policy  reversed,  121,  122. 
Wealth  of  Nations,  29,  30. 
Weights  and  measures,  made  uniform 

by  National  Assembly,  52;  metrical 

system  introduced  by  the  National 

Convention,  171. 
Westermann,  74,  76. 
What  might  have  been,  219. 
Whigs  the  allies  of  Danton,  107,  120. 
Wicliffe,  18. 
Women's  (married)  right  of  property, 

171. 
Wooden   shoes,    circular  recommend- 

i"g,  134- 

Young  men  and  women,  i ;  251. 
Young,  a  pity  that  all  the  revolution- 
ary actors  were,  209. 


AUG        1987 


DATE  DUE 


Gronlund,  Laurence,  . 

1899. 
Ca  ii^a-' 


■mM-fdm 


